The Mahou Shoujo of the Continuum Shift
by X the Reaper
Summary: Sayaka Miki is destined to die in every timeline she contracts: That is her ultimate fate. But what about after death? Lost in a dark void, the former Witch finds power like nothing ever seen before. What changes will she bring to a dying world? Can she become the hero she always said she'd be, or will she sink back into despair? What changes will she bring to the Continuum Shift?
1. Prologue: The Wheel of Fate is Turning

**Hello everybody! This is X the Reaper, having found inspiration to write a new story! This story's been wandering around my mind for a long while, so I'm gonna give it a shot at bringing it life!**

**It all started after taking the time to look up information on Homura Akemi and Sayaka Miki for my Fate stories. I was actually intrigued by the depth and intricacies of the characters of PMMM, and thus wanted to write a fanfic based on one of them. In the end, I chose Sayaka, mostly because she was the one who I felt had the most potential for what I had in mind.**

**So, I thought to myself, "What can I write involving a PMMM character and still feel comfortable about it?" Immediate answer? "Crossover!" "But with what?"**

**Then it hit me.**

**"...I've always wanted to see something where Sayaka Miki got to stab Yuuki Terumi in the gut with her sword... then witch out and tear him apart."**

**And thus, this fic was born. Other PMMM characters might be making later appearances, but don't bet on it. This is set during Continuum Shift, will extend into Chronophantasma and also the potential fourth game in the works.**

**Funny enough, in a morbid way, the day I finally start on this fic is the day I get into a car accident with my brother. Seriously, no joke. Thank God no one, passenger or otherwise, was hurt (I, the driver, got out just needing some stitches, which I consider a fair price to pay for my brother's life.) Ironic I start writing a story where the main character's life was ruined by a miracle gone bad after being saved by one. It was actually what gave me the motivation to seriously start writing this, actually.**

**'Balance means good and bad must zero themselves out', isn't that what they say in PMMM? Guess I got the lucky end of that deal, compared to Mami. And I do not mean that as an insult. But enough of my rambling, let's get on with this!**

**Disclaimer: BlazBlue and Puella Magi Madoka Magica are property of Gen Urobuchi and Arc System Works respectively and to any other parties. X the Reaper owns nothing save the story.**

**Alright, let's go!**

* * *

><p>Darkness.<p>

That was all they were aware of. That was all they knew.

It wasn't always like this, they also understood. There had also been light and color. Moving objects and life, and so much of it that they could go insane from trying to process it all.

But now it was all gone. Only darkness and silence remained, nothingness in all directions. Even their very names, what defined them as separate existences, was lost to them. They were as one being with two fused minds, and not even that now.

There were still memories that either one had, but they were confusing. Many were of times and images that only one of them recalled, and only faintly at that.

A man and woman.

Parents? Warm feeling, so that seemed about right.

A pink-haired girl with matching eyes, looking at her with concern.

Friend? They couldn't quite recall: happiness, regret and jealousy all mixed together in a jumble. Happiness seemed to trump the others, so friend, yes.

Another girl with yellow hair and matching eyes. Carrying... guns? Yes, that was it.

Friend? Respect and admiration... didn't seem quite right. Idol? Maybe.

Another girl with red hair and matching eyes. Carrying a spear and with... food? Yes, she was.

Strange emotions. One side felt rivalry, but also camaraderie, friendship and... very warm feeling. Other recoiled at sight, fearful and hateful... yet strangely comforted as well.

Too confusing.

A boy and girl together, the former with a violin and the latter holding his hand.

Friends? Conflicting emotion. One side felt betrayal, regret and anger, but also saddened acceptance. Other felt hatred for the girl and desire for the boy.

Did friends hurt each other like this? They didn't know.

A white cat-weasel thing, staring at them with red eyes and ever present smile, like a cute mascot.

Thoughts of impaling it with dozens of swords filled their mind. They didn't question it and moved on.

Finally, a black-haired girl with purple eyes, staring coldly with a shield and pistol.

No conflict. Both felt a burning anger and dislike for the image, the desire to rip her to shreds becoming unbearable.

They forced the image away with effort. Friend, she was not. That, they agreed on.

After that, blurs filled their vision. It was like looking at a shoddy film made by a drunk and with poor connection to boot. They caught flashes of events, battles, swords, being told important things by others. They couldn't understand it though, as if it was all in a foreign language being said backwards.

Finally though, it cleared near the end. They could vividly see a gray room with benches everywhere. Their vision was drawn to the golden-crusted gem in their/her(?) hand, once brilliant blue and now black (to the increasing dread of one and elation of another).

The red girl came again. They talked, but again they understood nothing... until the end.

_"I was stupid...so stupid..."_

That was their, one of their, voice, drowning in despair and loss. Then came the darkness, and with it, the birth of the other. Together, they relived the pain and sorrow, the hatred and loss, the regret and despair, but they had refused to let it control them anymore. They would rise above it, become something greater. In response, they could feel themselves growing larger, heavier, stronger. Cold steel surrounded their form, and their legs seemed to fuse into one. A feeling of vertigo erupted, and the memories of the second arose.

Well, 'memories' was probably stretching it. Unlike the first, it was like looking at the equivalent of a shattered TV that was transmitting barely obvious images while underwater in the midst of a whirlpool. Blurs were everywhere, and they were in the midst of a grand concert hall, seats filled to the domed ceiling. An eerie, but strangely familiar and comforting orchestra played all throughout, the work of several figures around her. It reminded them of something important they had lost, but they couldn't recall what. All they knew was that this was their haven and they didn't want to leave, never to lose this island of peace in an ocean of pain.

Then came the pink and red blurs from before. Anger and fear surfaced. They would allow no one to take this from them! Words were spoken, but they did not pay attention to what were said. They were too busy striking away. How dare they intrude on this-

Pain. Fiery pain. A black-and-purple blur grabbing the pink one and moving away. Red one still there... kneeling? Spears everywhere, massive one staring them right in the face. The music slowed.

The blur on the spear became clear. Red-headed girl from before, bleeding all over. Not scowling anymore... smiling?

Why? What did she have to be happy about?

_"I know, ***mumble***,"_ she said, her voice stirring something in them both. _"It sucks to be alone. Believe me, I've been there."_

Alone? They weren't alone. They had each other, why would they need anyone else? Yet they couldn't help but listen to the girl, a strange feeling compelling them.

What was this girl's name, the one who stirred such feelings? They wracked their memory for an answer, but found none.

_"But it's okay. I'll be there right beside you all the way... ***mumble***."_

What was she saying? Was it one of their names? Who was she talking to?

Then an explosion of red light. Pain unlike anything they had ever experienced filled them, ripped them apart until the darkness took them, where they had been floating alone ever since.

A surge of anger towards the red girl. She said she'd be with them the whole way. Where was she now? Had she broken her promise? Had she cast them aside, just like everything else seemingly had?

No answer was forthcoming, so once again they floated in silence, their only company each other.

* * *

><p>How long had they floated in this void? Seconds? Hours? Days? Decades? Millenia? They knew not how long or even if there was time here.<p>

Was this what death was like? They didn't feel anything here. They didn't even know if they _had _form here. They weren't aware of their body moving, or even if they had eyes to see. Everything was so similar they might as well been blind. They could be a floating mist in the dark or with a flesh-and-blood body and they still wouldn't be able to tell.

Darkness surrounded them as far as the eye could see, and nothing broke the monotony of black in any direction-

Wait.

What was that?

Their 'eyes' focused on something far 'below' them, a deep blue light like a beacon in the inky black. They knew not what it was, but anything was better than the alternative of just floating. They concentrated, united in their goal, and slowly made their way towards the light. They only knew they were making progress by the fact that the light grew stronger, and after what seemed like hours, they finally arrived.

It was indescribable. They couldn't make out any details of the object in front of them, the intense light it emitted preventing any sort of identification. But the strong light did not force them to look away; instead, it made them stare into it even more. The glow was warm and beautiful to gaze upon and it brought a strange measure of peace, the first positive thing they had truly felt since entering this place.

How long they stared, they knew not. Finally, a random thought occurred to them, and they reached out to 'touch' this thing of such beauty.

When their 'fingers' made contact, it was like liquid fire was injected straight into their nerves. Intense, rolling waves of pain flashed through them, causing them to convulse and let go of the object. Despite that, the glow seemed to permeate everywhere they looked, as if they had become one with the thing. Slowly, they could 'feel' changing, as if their 'body' was transforming in response to the light.

They were suddenly aware of a loud noise filling the black, something that was strange because they had heard nothing but the passage of their thoughts all the time they had been here. It took them a moment to realize that now they had ears to hear with.

It took them another second to realize they also had a mouth and lungs now, both of which working in tandem to make the loud screaming noise her ears were picking up on through the pain, which seemed to just increase in response to the 'feeling' becoming something very real and physical. They could now even see arms, wrapped in the blue glow, flailing and convulsing about desperately to the burning.

Of course, all of this was secondary nature to them, as their 'minds' screamed just as badly as their 'body', feeling as if they were being ripped apart and then reassembled, like a sword melted down and reforged into something stronger. Until this point, they had been aware as one being with two interlocked minds, bleeding into each other so badly they couldn't even effectively function. Now, as if the light had awakened something deep with, their thoughts, through the fire, became separate, more defined from the other, as if they were truly two different persons.

After what seemed like an eternity, the agony faded. Once more, they floated before the blue light, the same as before, yet so different. Slowly, one of them attempted to move their arm. It jerked like it was just asleep, but it responded, slowly coming before their eyes. It was thin but also slightly muscled, covered in a skin-tight dark-blue, almost black opera glove that extended halfway past the elbow. Her hand was further covered by a cerulean fingerless glove with white bands around each finger, separated from the opera glove by a silver-blue band of metal about the wrist, which had what appeared to be an armored guard over it for extra protection like some sort of knight.

Slowly, she tried to flex it. The fingers responded with that same tingling feeling, but they did as she wanted. The two of them could feel their body responding as they tried more motions: Punching, spinning, kicking (they noticed that their legs were much more armored below the knee, with silver-blue steel surrounding the lower legs and feet with a similar band of armor around the ankles and knees as about their wrists, while the upper legs showed a pair of white stockings that came to their upper thigh.), even randomly flailing. Everything worked perfectly, though they could feel something wrapped about their neck and something else heavy on their head.

"...What happened **to us?**" They both asked at the same time, the later with a slightly higher pitched voice than the other. Their voices echoed in the vast darkness, the first time they had bothered to try and form words. **"Where are **we?"**  
><strong>

_"You are where all things happen."_

They turned around, trying to find the source of the voice that had spoken.

**"What?" **the weaker presence of the two of them asked as they gazed about. This was the one who had taken control near the end of the memories, but she was damaged, shattered by the power which had sent them here and more like a voice at the back of their mind. **"Who's **there?"

_"I am the one who guards the Azure. My dreams and memories preserve a dying world, and it by my will that time will flow and stop."_

"...So you're supposed to be God?" the stronger mind asked. She was the one to whom a majority of the memories belonged to, and was the one mostly in control of their new body.

_"I am the wheel of fate that restores that which is lost," _ the voice continued as if it hadn't heard._ "and I am the fool who dares to assume fate can be changed."_

Eyes narrowed at the ignored question. "We want **a name," **they growled, annoyed with this cryptic crap. They had had enough of that from the damn weasel (_Kyubey, _their recovering memories supplied) and the shield girl (_Homura Akemi_). "Give us **something straight."**

Suddenly, a chuckle. It was so sudden and so out of place that the two minds couldn't help but blink dumbfounded.

_"Then tell me, young warrior: What is your name?"_

The two blinked. What was their name? That blue light had certainly made sure to split them apart mentally, but they could recall no name even now. They wracked their brain for the answer, shifting through memory to recall.

**"We... **I **am..."**

They went back to their last memory of the red-head (_Kyoko Sakura_ was her name, they recalled with some level of relief.) and desperately listened to the last part of her words.

***Mumble***

They forced themselves to concentrate, trying to break through that block.

S***mumble***ka

Sa***mumble***ka

Saya***mumble***

"...Sayaka..." she replied slowly. "Sayaka Miki. **Oktavia** **von Seckendorff."**

One of them blinked. Where had that last bit come from? However, the other seemed pleased with it.

"I don't remember ever hearing that last part. **Tha****t's my name."**

"But I-" 'Sayaka' tried to argue.

**"That's my name," **'Oktavia' repeated calmly, though also dangerously. Sayaka was confused by the other's adamance, but decided to let it go.

"Uh... sure," she relented, feeling the other's satisfaction at winning the argument.

Turning their attention back to the darkness, the newly christened Sayaka spoke. "Well, who are you?" she tried to sound brave, but she (and Oktavia) couldn't help but feel tiny in the black, even with the glowing light behind them. "Where are you?"

Suddenly, a movement in front of them. It came into the blue glow, and Sayaka found herself staring at the sight.

It was a gigantic gold, red and white metal object, shaped somewhat like a humanoid satellite. Though it had no eyes, it seemed to stare directly at them from the black screen with a blue light near the 'head'.

_"I am the Master Unit." _A voice seemed to speak within their minds. _"I am the one who watches over all the timelines. I record all that happens, all that has gone before and all that might still be."_

Sayaka just stared dumbly for several seconds, her newly found mouth unable to put into words what she was trying to comprehend. Finally, she found her voice.

"And I... _we _are here-"

_"You are an anomaly," _the object replied, as if talking about the weather. _"You do not belong in this place, in this world."_

With that line, strange as it was, came an unspoken threat. Sayaka found herself trying to back up slowly, a guarded expression on her face.

**"What?" **Oktavia replied. **"So you're just gonna kill us?"**

Sayaka could feel her other's urge to fight, to resist any sort of fate that would befall them. She couldn't quite share her determination though.

'We don't even have a weapon-'

Suddenly, as if by magic, a cutlass with a blue grip and gold guard appeared in her right hand like it was always there. Sayaka glanced down and stared at it for a moment, confusion on her face. 'How did I-?'

Another memory surfaced. Conjuring a massive amount of similar swords to her grip, striking and hurling them at her enemies.

**'Does it matter?' **Oktavia asked, breaking Sayaka out of memory lane. **'Let's just do this!'**

_"Peace," _the Master Unit replied. _"I could not destroy you even if I wanted to now. Your body and power have been restored by the Azure, a power beyond even my ability."_

Sayaka and Oktavia blinked and then looked behind them, the blue light still there. **"The** light?"

_"The Azure has blessed you with some of its power," _the Master Unit answered. _"Truly you are fortunate. Otherwise, it would have obliterated whatever was left of your body and destroyed your souls, damning you to an even worse existence. While I have no desire to destroy you and lack the power to destroy anyways, the power that now courses through you would protect you from any of my efforts."_

Sayaka moved back from the light slightly at that little tidbit, then back at the machine. "...Well, what do you want then?"

The machine was silent for a long moment. _"A deal."_

Sayaka blinked, but her suspicious look only intensified. She recalled from her scattered memories the last time she made a deal with something not human. It had led her here after all. "What kind of deal?"

_"I grant you freedom from this place. Now that you have physical form, the Boundary will attempt to destroy you, and even if stay near the Azure it will eventually overload your body with its energy and kill you. I will even restore your memories to their undamaged state. In exchange, you must work to protect the world I send you to from those that would attempt to destroy it."_

"Why?" she asked. "I thought you just said in your little speech you protected it."

_"There are those who see my efforts to preserve the world as nothing but foolish. They seek to control this world's fate for themselves, and I cannot intervene directly."_

**"...But you can act through another."**

_"Do this, and you may do whatever it is you desire afterwards," _the robot replied. _"If you so desire, I will even attempt to return you to your own world, if it is within my power."_

Sayaka was silent for a long moment. Honestly, anything would be better than just floating in this black void with a blue light and gold-robot-god to talk to. But still...

"What's the catch?" she asked. "I'm sensing a 'but' here."

_"If you accept, you will lose all memory of our interaction here," _the Master Unit answered. _"You shall not recall what you have seen, at least not right away. That is the natural result of any who would leave the Boundary. In addition, your two sides will not be able to interact anymore: One, the original, shall become the dominant host of your body, though the other may surface at times. The time will eventually come when both of you will be able to interact, and even draw upon the other's powers, but until then neither of you will remember that the other even exists."_

_"Even knowing all of that, do you still accept?"_

* * *

><p><strong><em>Moonlight Castle<em>**

Rachel Alucard sat up from her seat in the courtyard of her home, the tea in her hands forgotten as she stared off into the distance. Though her expression did not change from its normal form, her faithful butler recognized her change in mood.

"Milady, is everything alright?" the silver-haired old man in a suit asked his mistress. "You seem troubled."

Rachel was silent for a moment longer. "...It's nothing, Valkenhayn," she replied at last, her brow furrowing slightly as she placed her tea down . "However, it would appear a new piece has entered the game... one that I have no prior knowledge of in any form."

"Really?" a voice came from the red footrest where her feet were. "Who is it?"

"Really Gii?" the black umbrella with a cat face that was over Rachel's head said in response. "She just said she has no idea! ...Though I am curious as to the identity of this stranger. Perhaps a dashing young man-"

"Nago, Gii, enough of that," Rachel said calmly, punctuating her statement with her heel into Gii's stomach area.

"Ow!" Gii cried out. "That hurt!"

"Do you think it could be connected to Terumi?" Valkenhayn asked, pointedly ignoring his mistress's actions (he had grown accustomed to the fact he would never be able to force her out of the habit) and just barely keeping his distaste for the man mentioned out of his voice like a true gentleman.

"...No," Rachel replied with slightly narrowed eyes. "That disgusting snake has no need of such a new element at a time like this. No, this disturbance... it was almost as if it had come directly from the Boundary."

Valkenhayn's eyes widened slightly. "You don't think it could be-"

"I don't know," Rachel replied. "And that's what worries me."

She suddenly stood up, allowing Gii and Nago to return to their usual forms, a stout red bat and a big black cat. "Come along, both of you," she beckoned to her familiars. "We have some searching to do."

"Yes, ma'am!" they both yelled.

Rachel then conjured up a portal. "Valkenhayn, I leave things to you."

The old butler bowed. "As you command, Lady Rachel. Shall I follow after you?"

She glanced back. "Not quite yet," she replied after a moment. "Be prepared to leave at a moment's notice though."

He bowed once more. "Very well. Good luck, milady."

'To have directly come from the Boundary itself, and also feel of the power of the Azure...' Rachel wondered to herself as she passed on through her portal. 'Have you finally taken the center stage, Master Unit Amaterasu?'

* * *

><p><em><strong>Sector Seven (Kokonoe's Laboratory)<strong>_

"What the hell?" Kokonoe muttered to herself as she scanned her monitors, scanning the readings and then doing so again. "What in the world's two Azure doing in Kagutsuchi?"

Normally, this wouldn't be too surprising. After all, there were at least three different Azures in existence as of the last time she checked the 13th Hierarchical City, and one of them had been destroyed by another one.

However, those had been Azure Grimoires, fakes and imitations created to draw upon but a fraction of the Boundary's power. Even that damnable Terumi's version, while perfected compared to Ragna the Bloodedge's and the 13th Prime Field Device's versions, still couldn't draw upon the original power of the Boundary.

In fact, there was only one person she knew of who possessed the true Azure that could do so, and she was currently in Kagutsuchi, blissfully unaware of her newfound power.

So why the hell were there two equally potent Azure signatures, both of such deep blue blue coloration, the mark of a true Azure, doing in the same place?

"That damned snake couldn't have done this," she muttered as she checked the readings again, as if hoping by denying it she would prove it wasn't real. No such luck. "Not even he could make a pure Azure like this, but that doesn't explain the 'how' or 'why'. Does it have something to do with that massive phenomena intervention that happened a few minutes ago?"

She got on her communicator. "Tager!" she barked into it as she sent the relevant data to him. "You seeing all of this?"

"As clear as day, Kokonoe," her 'assistant' spoke over the line. "I can hardly believe these readings myself."

"You don't have to believe them, Tager, just understand them," Kokonoe replied. "Are you in Kagutsuchi yet?"

"I'm in sight now. My current mission is the capture and detainment of Noel Vermillion, as you ordered. Would you like to add to that?"

Kokonoe was silent for a moment, then glanced over to the tank in another section of the room, particularly on the blond woman inside.

"...Not quite yet," she replied. "You might be getting some help on this mission before too long though."

"Something to do with that 'project' of yours?" Tager asked over the line.

"None of your damn business," she told him. "Do what you've been ordered to do... but keep an eye out for that other Azure reading, just in case."

"Right. Tager out."

The connection cut, Kokonoe walked over to where her most recent efforts had gone to rest. She stared up at the girl within with a neutral expression, though also tinged with some level of regret.

"Looks like you'll be seeing your first mission pretty soon, huh Lambda?" she asked the sleeping girl. "Guess we'll see if my work's paid off while you're out there."

She would have immediately just gone over to the controls to wake her from her sleep, but something stayed her hand. Instead, she just kept staring at the Murakumo she had brought back. "...You know, I just realized this'll be the first time you've ever stepped outside this place, without me to watch over your progress and make fixes. I've done all I can to prepare you, but from here on out it'll be up to your own ability to win in the coming days."

She blinked and looked away for a moment, her eyes gaining a faraway look as she realized what she sounded like. "Listen to me huh? Fussing like I'm your mother." A humorless chuckle escaped her. "After everything I've done to and taken from you, I don't deserve to be called something like that though."

She looked back, her gaze on the sleeping girl's peaceful face, remembering the horrified and hateful expression she had worn when she did what she had to preserve Lambda's sanity. 'I wonder what you'd do, if you remembered everything?' Kokonoe thought to herself. 'Would you hate me? Run away and never come back? Try to kill me? I wouldn't blame you, not for any way you decided. It's the least I deserve, even if it saved you.'

She shook her head. "Since when did I get so goddamn sentimental?" she asked herself, then looked back at Lambda, forcing her usual expression and demeanor back on. Even if there was no one else but them, she wasn't going to just start getting all sobby. "Well, I better get you awake and suited up. Don't need to keep Tager waiting too long."

'If nothing else,' she thought to herself as she took the controls, 'at least wait 'til Terumi's dead and gone, Lambda. Then maybe we'll see about making amends.'

* * *

><p><strong><em>Takamagahara System<em>**

"You're certain."

"There can be no doubt. There is in fact another Azure in addition to the Eye."

"But that shouldn't be possible. There can only be one Successor to the Azure, and that is Noel Vermillion, the incomplete 12th Prime Field Device. How can there be another?"

In the white void that encompassed the Takamagahara System, three chairs sat in a circle, upon which sat three invisible beings whose shadows were cast on the ground. These three: TA, TB, and TC, were the three AIs that governed the system, their duty to observe all the possibilities of the timeline and guide it to a favorable conclusion, all to satisfy the future in which order would reign supreme over the unending world.

To that end, they desired one thing: The destruction of the Master Unit Amaterasu, the only thing that could defy their plans.

However, even supposedly omnipotent existences as they claimed themselves to be could be thrown for a loop, as this situation was quickly proving.

"Indeed, it should be impossible," TB agreed with TC. "This is an entirely unprecedented event. Never before in this continuum shift has such a thing happened."

"But there is one thing capable of doing something so impossible." TA noted. "The Master Unit."

"Could it be that it is aware of what we intend?" TC asked. "That this is perhaps some mad gamble to force us down an unpredictable path no side can prepare for?"

"More importantly, can we reject this change?" TB inquired.

"Impossible," TA replied. "Whoever this new Azure is, she is now just as resistant to the phenomena intervention as the likes of Rachel Alucard and Yuuki Terumi. To attempt it against her will likely leave her even more aware of our involvement, no doubt all part of the Master Unit's plan."

"I can't believe this," TC muttered. "To think the Master Unit would break its own rules like this..."

"The situation is not unsalvageable," TB noted. "We simply must move with greater care and speed. We should have suspected the Master Unit would not go quietly."

"More importantly, will Yuuki Terumi be able to perform as planned?" TA asked. "This was something even we were entirely unprepared for."

"He will adapt," TC replied. "He always has. Right now, we must begin observing these new possibilities this new Azure has brought forth."

In unspoken agreement, the Takamagahara System went back to work. Nothing would stop them from their goal, no matter what the Master Unit threw at them.

* * *

><p><em><strong>13 Hierarchical City (Kagutsuchi)<strong>_

'This has just not been my day, huh?'

Indeed, for Ragna the Bloodedge, today had just been one of several pretty shitty days. He had originally come to the NOL branch in the city just to blow up its Cauldron (pretty standard day for him, all things considered), but instead got involved in a whole mess of conspiracy bull all going back to the asshole who burned down his home and kidnapped his little sister, among said bull would be having to face down his psycho brother Jin (who cut his arm off that faithful day), then fighting some robot samurai hero named Hakumen and a silver-haired psycho clone of said sister named Nu. After that, he got into a fight with an NOL officer (who admittedly saved his ass during that last fight and just wanted to talk, so maybe that was just him being a bit of a dick and uncomfortable around her. Not his fault she looked just like his sister as well!), and then he got jumped by a kid with a Nox Nyctores.

_"So, you were able to sense my presence," the blond-haired boy said, briefly adjusting his glasses. "I'm impressed, Ragna the Bloodedge."_

_"What do you want, brat?" Ragna replied, not in the least bit impressed with the fact he was facing down another Nox Nyctores user. After his brother and Hakumen, it was kind of hard to. "I don't have time to play with kids."_

_"You may not," the boy admitted, his tone still unflappably polite. Behind him, his giant purple doll waited silently. "However, Mr. Ragna the Bloodedge, I do."_

_Ragna's eyes narrowed. "Last warning, kid," he warned him. I'm REALLY not in the mood for this bullshit. If you don't want me to hand you your head on a platter, I strongly suggest you just turn around and walk away... now."_

_Instead of listening to sound advice, the kid took up a battle stance, his doll moving serve simultaneously as both a shield and weapon. "Did you really think mere words would deter me?" he asked sarcastically._

_Ragna took up his own battle stance, one hand on his giant sword. "No," he admitted, "but it was worth a shot."_

That had been about five minutes ago. Now he was standing over the barely standing kid, who was fighting to maintain consciousness while his Nox Nirvana stood protectively in front of him.

"Can't say I didn't warn you," Ragna reminded him. "It's too late for second thoughts now, you little punk."

The blond coughed deeply. "...You're very strong," he wheezed out. "Just as I suspected."

Ragna sighed, actually feeling a little bad about how rough he was with him. Even if the punk needed a lesson, he might have taken a little bit too much of his pent-up aggression out on him. "I told you from the start what I was gonna do to you," Ragna replied, turning to leave. "Now scram, kid. You bother me."

"Sis..." the boy muttered.

It was faint and not meant for his ears, but the way the kid said that word, pleading for someone to help him, suddenly made Ragna have a flash. Just for a moment, he saw another blonde in the kid's place, though much older and without glasses.

_"Brother," _the memory said in the same pleading voice.

Ragna's eyes widened, and he hesitated. "J-Jin?!"

Suddenly, Nirvana moved in that split-second, jabbing her finger blade right into Ragna's gut. Sharp, burning pain surged through Ragna he stumbled back, hand to his stomach, already bleeding.

"Gah!" he yelled, a bit of blood shooting out of his mouth. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid!'

The boy chuckled. "Oh, thank you, Sis. Hahaha... you're right, Sis," he muttered, his voice getting slower and softer with each word. "I still can't...do anything...without you... Yeah...thanks...Sis."

Of course, Ragna wasn't paying much attention to the boy's words, trying to do his best to staunch the bleeding. "Goddamnit!" he gasped out. "Nirvana, you bitch!"

Ragna fell to his knees. 'Dammit, how did I get so damn weak?' he thought to himself as he desperately tried to maintain consciousness. 'Even if it was a Nox, just one blow...did my fights with that masked bitch and Nu really leave me this out of it?'

Faintly, he heard the kid stumbling towards him. "I...I've got to get the Azure..."

'Damn it,' he thought, rapidly fading. 'Is this really it for me?'

"HEY!"

"Huh?" Both Ragna and Nirvana's wielder said at the same time, glancing about despite their weakened conditions. Where had that-

Suddenly, Nirvana pushed her master back with one arm, swinging its other one forward with its blades out. For a moment, Ragna thought she was aiming for him. The answer proved to be different as her arm went _clang _against something metal, forcing her and her wielder back a little.

"Wha-What?" her master said in surprise. "Who...who are you supposed to be?"

Ragna looked up with his blurry vision. The person had its back to him, so he couldn't see the face, but what he could see was a grey blue cloak with a high collar, along with what appeared to be some sort of long grey skirt, metal armor around the legs and arms, some sort of sword in hand, and...was that a tail?. The figure was also kind of short, probably only about Noel's (the previously-mentioned NOL officer) height, if not slightly taller. Weirdish thing of all, he could see what appeared to be a mass of spiky white hair above the collar, though it seemed to turn blue as it went down.

"I don't know where I am, why I'm here or why I look like this, or even exactly what's going on here," the figure spoke in a strong, female voice. "But I can see when someone's in trouble. Because you'll hurt, I'll give you one chance to walk away now, kid. I won't warn you again, even if you're barely standing."

Ragna slipped into unconsciousness despite himself, his last thoughts one of the strangest, yet truest he had had in a long time.

'...Why do teenage girls... always end up saving my ass?'

* * *

><p><strong>Oh Ragna, why do women always end up saving your ass? Anyways, this little story will probably be my newest side project. No idea how often I'll update, probably whenever I feel like it.<strong>

**Also, Sayaka's got a new look! It was inspired by an awesome piece of fanart I saw of a humanized Oktavia von Seckendorff, though I will make some edits to it for my own usage. Next chapter, we'll be seeing things from her perspective to see exactly what the Master Unit and the Azure did to her.**

**What possibilities will the Mahou Shoujo always destined to die and become a witch bring to the continuum shift? Find out next time! Favorite, follow, and leave a review, would you kindly? I'd like to have as much feedback as possible.  
><strong>


	2. Arrival

** Hello everybody! This is X the Reaper, bringing you the next installment of Mahou Shoujo of the Continuum Shift!**

**This time, we move back a little bit to the exact point when Sayaka Miki arrived in the BlazBlue verse, before Ragna vs. Carl happened. Let us see just what has changed for our familiar magical girl...**

**Disclaimer: BlazBlue and Puella Magi Madoka Magica are property of Gen Urobuchi and Arc System Works respectively and to any other parties. X the Reaper owns nothing save the story.**

**Alright, let's go!**

* * *

><p>Sayaka had felt some pretty weird things in her life. Being impaled by spears, getting stabbed with shadows, having her soul wrenched out of her body to be placed in a gem, falling over dead when said gem was thrown away from her body, her soul too far to control her body, falling into despair and watching said gem cloud with darkness, and all while her mind and soul seemed to be tearing at themselves to try and compensate for all the anguish she felt.<p>

However, right now, all that paled in comparison to what she was feeling now, which she could only really described as all life as she knew it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in her body exploding at the speed of light. Funny thing was, she wasn't even entirely certain she could 'feel' the pain shooting through her right now, because that implied she was able to register the agony as something happening to her, when it was really more like the pain _was _her.

Slowly though, the pain receded. She became more aware of her body laying face-down on rocky ground, with the taste of dust in her mouth and the feel of rocks digging into her face, along with something heavy laying around her butt area. With a groan she tried to move her body, becoming more confident as she felt her form shift in response, despite the pain coursing through her with each motion.

'Pain is good,' she thought to herself, not yet trusting her mouth to speak. 'It means I'm alive...' she suddenly felt her mood sour at a particularly bad memory, 'for a given value of 'alive', I guess.'

With a groan of effort, she pushed herself onto her back, staring up into the sky and feeling strangely like something was jabbing into her back. She blinked at the cloudless blue sky, then noticed the grey rubble around her. 'When I get outside?' she wondered as she glanced about. 'And it's already daytime? Last thing I remember was-'

The last thing she remembered was sitting in the train station, talking to Kyoko while looking at her blackening Soul Gem, feeling more despair and hopelessness than she ever had before. Then she remembered crying and saying how stupid she had been, and then...what?

Sayaka's eyes widened when she realized she couldn't remember anything after that. She quickly tried to sit up straight (relieving the pressure on her back), only to feel something snag her neck. She reflexively brought her hand to her throat, only to the stop when she felt cloth.

'It's just my cape,' she noted with some relief, then she blinked. 'Wait... when I did use my Soul Gem?'

She shifted slightly as she tried to get a look at herself, then stopped when she heard a clanking noise near her feet. Looking down, she blinked as she realized that she _wasn't _wearing her Magical Girl uniform.

First thing she was aware of was that her lower legs and feet were covered in some sort of silver knight armor, while her upper legs still had the white stockings from before. Her skirt was also longer and looked more frayed and torn at the hems, coming down to just before her knees and being more of a grey color than her usual blue. She also realized her cape was different as well, being frayed like her skirt but a light-grey-blue instead, complete with a high plaid collar about her head and fastened to her body by, of all things, a pink bowtie ribbon.

She noticed her arms still had their past-elbow-length sleeves, but now they were black instead of dark blue, with her white hand gloves now fingerless cerulean with white bands around each finger and a silver-blue band of metal about her wrists and covered with an armored guard for protection. Staring down at her chest, she realized that now she wore a sleeveless cerulean shirt that completely covered her chest and belly (and from the feel of it, her back as well) along with a silver chestplate that covered her upper chest for extra protection. Finally, about her waist was a silver belt with a circular red gem set in the center, along with musical notes etched all around its surface.

In fact, all of the metal areas of her get-up, from legs to the arms and chestplate, from the boots to the wrist bands all had musical notes like when she used her healing magic, all carved in black into the armor, like she was some sort of musical knight.

She brought a hand to her head in confusion, only to pull it back when she felt cool metal. Quickly bringing it back up and rubbing it, she realized that she had some sort of metal get-up on her head too. Grasping it, she tried to pull it off, grunting when she felt more resistance than she expected.

'Why do I feel more hair on my head than usual?' she wondered to herself as she finally yanked the headgear off, only to suddenly feel her hair, which had to be about _twice _as long as she remembered, fall down in front of her eyes.

"Okay," she said at last, blowing some strands away and noting with personal relief that at least her voice hadn't suddenly decided to change while she was unconscious. "Apparently, I'm having one of weirdest dreams I've ever had, or I somehow got a Mahou Shoujo upgrade."

Ignoring the subject of her hair for a moment, she looked down at the piece of metal in her hands. It was shaped like the facial mask of some sort of knight, which made sense given her outfit, but it was kind of creepy, lacking the musical notes of the rest of the armor and almost skull-like in appearance with three discs shaped almost like eyes staring back at her. Several miniature swords, disturbing similar to her own, were fused together in some metallic representation of a high hairdo or helmet plume at the top, and the whole thing seemed almost alive.

However, none of that compared to the eeriest sense of deja vu she ever had upon gazing at it. Something scratched away at the back of her mind, telling her she should know this from somewhere.

But where? She had no memory of seeing something like this before, but the feeling persisted and only grew stronger. Slowly, she was heard what sounded like a violin orchestra playing, and she began to imagine standing in some sort of concert hall, allowing the haunting music to carry her away-

With effort, she wrenched her gaze from it, only now aware of the fact she was panting heavily. "What the hell?" she breathed slowly. "What was that?"

An urge to hurl the mask as far as she could away struck her, but something stayed her hand, refusing to follow through on that instinct. Instead, she slowly put it down next to her, running a hand through her recently grown hair and pulling it in front of her on a whim to try and distract herself from the feeling.

She certainly got it when she got a good look at her new do. "...Since when did I have white hair too?"

Indeed, she still had her blue hair from before, but now it was mixed with definite strands of white. In fact, if she had to guess from the position of the different colors, it was the top levels of hair that were white while the bottom ones were still blue. She glanced back down at the mask, tentatively picking it back up and trying to avoid gazing into the eyes.

'I guess that why I had this on then,' she figured. 'It must have kept my new hair all at the top.'

Slowly, she tried to grab her hair and put it back in place. It was slow going, to the point she had to put the headgear back down to get a good grip, but she eventually succeeded, feeling much better now that the hair was out of her eyes.

"Okaaayyy..." she drawled out as she glanced about, slowly trying to get to her feet. "What the heck happened while I was out?"

The place looked like some sort of warzone or at least a condemned part of town, rubble and broken buildings everywhere. A perfect ground for the less fortunate of society, but she couldn't ever remember Mitakihara City having any such place. Even if the city had been in the middle of reconstruction to a more 'modern' outlook, this was no recent damage: She could clearly see that things had been like this a long time, from the weeds overgrown and faded paint to rusted metal and clearly weathered stone, and there was no sign of any construction work being done anywhere.

Hell, the most damning evidence was the fact there was almost utter silence: No drills or hammers, the sound of machinery or the yell of workmen completely absent. It was like she was in a dead city.

"Seriously, what the hell happened?" she wondered again, her voice seeming to echo about the area. "Did a giant Witch suddenly decide to invade and I was knocked out in the process?"

She shifted through her memories, but the last thing she remembered was talking to Kyoko before everything went blank and nothing she tried was letting her get anymore info. At the same time, she couldn't seem to properly get up off the ground, once more something seemingly shifted behind her, like an extra dead limb.

"Darn it..." she growled, the combined lack of progress on either front getting to her. Thrusting her hand out, she conjured up a sword, noting with satisfaction that was still working, and thrust it into the ground, using it as support to get to her feet. Yet she could still feel a weird weight dragging behind her and on the ground, almost like it was a part of her.

"Oh, that's it!" she snapped, turning around whilst simultaneously pulling her cape back to get a good look at her backside. "What the heck is going...on..."

Sticking right out of her back like it had always been there was a tail, kind of like cat girls she had seen in some random anime. However, instead of a thin furry tail, she had a sleek, thin but well-muscled _fish _tail, complete with shining scales of blue, black and maroon and two fins that flared in a rainbow of the colors of fire. It wouldn't have looked out of place on some sort of mermaid of legend.

She just stared in sheer dumbfoundedness for the longest of moments. She attempted to try and move it, flexing muscles that were never there before. It shifted in response, fins scrapping on rock. She winced slightly at the rough feel, then slowly brought her hand to bear against the tail, rubbing it and simultaneously feeling both the cool smoothness of the scale and the warmth of her hand. It was real, no doubt about it.

"...Okay," she said calmly. "I have a fishtail now, along with a new hairdo, new clothes, and no idea where I am. Don't panic, Sayaka, there's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this."

She was silent for a moment, then used her free hand to punch herself in the face. Hard.

"Urgh!" she groaned, feeling her jaw crack as her fist made contact. Quickly pulling back, she felt something coppery in her mouth and spat, quickly sending up a glob of blood.

'Okay, I'm definitely not dreaming,' she decided. 'You don't bleed and feel definite pain in a dream, not when you do it to yourself...' Suddenly, she remembered something important. 'Wait a minute, my Soul Gem!'

Of course, it had to do with that! True Kyubey (she felt a sudden sense of distaste rise inside her at the thought of that white weasel) never said anything about something like this, but he never told her or anyone about the fact the Gems literally contained their souls either. Maybe this was just some sort of change that occasionally happened, and just another case of the alien withholding information.

In her decided explanation, she might have ignored the fact that the white weasel was nowhere to be seen, despite the fact he seemed to delight in appearing whenever someone realized something new about being a Mahou Shoujo so he could provide his own commentary. She quickly looked down to where her Gem normally was when she transformed, right where her belly button was.

It took her a moment to realize that she couldn't see it due to her new clothes.

"Wow, forgot about that somehow," she muttered, then started to reach down to pull her shirt up slightly. She stopped again. "Wait, what am I doing? I can just sense wherever my Soul Gem is by concentrating." She shook her head at her sudden lack of judgement and shut her eyes, reaching mentally outward for the familiar light that signified the object that was the source of her magic and life-

She was suddenly distracted by a crash, followed by the distinct sound of metal bashing against each other. Forgetting about her Gem and current predicament for a moment, Sayaka turned her head in the direction of the noise.

"What the heck?" she muttered, "What's going on?"

The smart thing would have been to head in another direction, in case the fight came over to where she was. In which case, there was no guarantee that whoever was fighting would decide to turn their attention on _her_.

Of course, Sayaka Miki was in a place she had no memory of. Even for a novice Mahou Shoujo like herself, she could tell when she was in unfamiliar territory: having lived in Mitakihara all her life, she knew the 'air' of the place and her instincts seemed to be fine-tuned to the land. She wasn't getting any such feeling of familiarity where she was right now. For all she knew whoever was fighting right now could be the only living beings a long ways around.

Besides, if someone was in trouble, lending a helping hand was always a good way to make a first impression, and despite what she might have said to Kyoko in their last conversation, drowning in the midst of her own despair and suicidal thoughts, she did still believe in fighting selflessly to defend the innocent was a cause worth fighting for.

'Even if I'm really just a walking corpse and it just brings me pain, I can still help people,' she reminded herself, then tried to take a running jump to where she could hear the battle raging. 'After all, what's left for me if I don't have even have that?'

She had a new outfit (though the how still eluded her) and with it maybe even new abilities. She had thrown away everything, from her future, her love, even the one she had called best friend, all for the power of a Mahou Shoujo to protect others. If she decided to regret it now, what would have been the point of going through all that shit in the first place?

'I-'

Suddenly, she fell to the ground in a heap, her body not used to the addition of a counter-weight on her backside. Glancing back around, she gave her tail a glare.

"This is gonna take some getting used to."

The tail flopped in response.

* * *

><p>It took Sayaka about a minute or two to figure out how to effectively move and jump with her new limb. Strangely, it was way faster and easier than she expected, as if her body had always had a tail and she was just trying to remember how to use it properly. She chalked it up to instinct and magic-heebie-jeebies and started to make her way towards where she could hear the sounds of battle upon a rooftop, which only grew louder as she approached.<p>

As she made her way there (quickly climbing an adjunct building), she once again thought back to her last clear memory to try and figure out how she got here: Her talk with Kyoko Sakura, her fellow red-headed Mahou Shoujo/enemy/rival/maybe-friend. Of course, she got nothing out of it, aside from watching her Soul Gem get darker than it ever had before and listening to her own despair-filled words, which seemed strangely creepy to her now that her mind was more or less sane and not on the verge of dropping off the slippery slope.

_"The balance of hope and despair is always zero, just like you said...or something like it. I think I understand what you meant by that now. I've saved plenty of people, but in return, resentment and pain took root in my heart, and I'm even hurting my best friend now. As much as I wished for the happiness of one, someone else must be equally cursed. That's how it is for a Mahou Shoujo, and that's how it is for me."_

The last words in particular haunted her, not just for how lost and utterly shattered she sounded as tears fell from her face, but for the dark and heavy feeling that had settled in her chest as she had said them.

_"I was stupid...so stupid..."_

After that, all she remembered was a burst of wind, dark electricity blasting everywhere as she fell to the ground, losing consciousness. The last thing she could remember was Kyoko screaming her name before everything went dark.

She grimaced as she tried to push it aside, trying to tell herself that was just her talking in depression and suicide, and it was natural for people to say things they didn't really mean while they were like that. Still, those words struck a chord in her. Really, what had becoming a Mahou Shoujo done for her, aside from bringing pain and misfortune? True, she got magic, but at the cost of any chance of living a normal life. She got a wish that came true, but the object of it would forever be beyond her reach because of what she had become. She got the ability to defend the weak and helpless, but how many times had she got her ass kicked, needing others to bail her out?

Not to mention that she needed to constantly purify the source of her power, else let something horrible happen to herself...

Suddenly, she blinked when a stray thought came to her. 'What if the reason I'm the way I look now is because I let my Soul Gem get too black?' she wondered. 'Did the corruption actually change my physical appearance?'

It was a tempting thought, but it didn't seem quite right though. If becoming too corrupted would result in such a change, why would Kyubey had taken the time to specifically tell her to never let her Soul Gem get that far? Was there something else to it, some sort of price to pay?

Her mood suddenly got a whole lot grimmer. That's right, everything about being what she was came with a price.

'Balance means hope and despair equals zero,' she thought to herself with barely contained anger. 'What a shitty-ass rule to live by.'

Yet it was true and she just couldn't handle it. That why she had decided to let her Soul Gem become so corrupted in the first place, because she thought it'd let her die peacefully. Apparently, even that hadn't happen though, and now here she was, alive and no doubt still bound in some way by her contract.

She felt her heart sink at that. What would Madoka think if she found out? She hadn't given thought to the idea that she might very well survive her attempt at suicide. How could she face her friend without shame and regret? Hell, what would her parents (even if they didn't know about her magic) and even Kyoko, the one who witnessed it firsthand, think when they found out she was still alive?

With effort, she shook her head. "Doesn't matter," she reminded herself. "Just focus on figuring out what the heck happened and where you are. Worry about what you're gonna do and how you're gonna get screwed over in the future later." After all, might as well enjoy the idea of newfound powers and lease on life (or unlife) without a price for at least a little bit; let her innocent ignorance survive for just a little longer before the dark truth crushed it all over again.

She grimaced. 'God, I think I'm starting to think like Kyoko or Akemi-san.' That wasn't a comforting comparison to make.

Finally, she got near enough to the battle that the clash of metal became louder than her thoughts. Quickly making it to the roof and dropping down behind some rubble, she peered over it to get a glimpse one of the weirdest fights she had ever seen.

Not that she hadn't seen and fought in 'weird' battles before. After all, when your 'allies' fought with an unlimited supply of muskets, ribbons and a giant cannon, a segmented spear and forming multiple (and giant) versions of it, and a shield with all manner of crazy firearms stashed inside, with your own weapons being a limitless supply of cutlasses and even musical notes, and your enemies were basically the stuff of nightmares and insanity, some pretty strange fights are a given. However, this fight was already weird by those standards for the fact that, first of all, both of them were boys, who could not become Mahou Shoujo (Why, she had no idea. Maybe Kyubey liked the idea of dressing up girls in weird outfits more than guys.). Second of all, one of them was an adult and the other was a kid probably younger than she was.

The adult was probably in his early twenties or so, with white spiky hair kind of like her own and what looked like two different colored eyes, though she couldn't be sure from her position. He was wearing a red-sleeved jacket with two long thin tails hanging from the back, underneath of which was a black shirt with three red belts. He was also wearing a pair of black gloves with some sort of red gem on the backs, and he had on a black hakama and steel-toed red boots. Basically, he sort of screamed 'street-punk'. He was currently swinging a massive cleaver sword around with one hand, but he was also using his fists and legs to try and pummel his opponent.

Said opponent, as she had noted earlier, was probably younger than she was, maybe twelve or so. He had blond hair, blue eyes, white skin and was the even more bizarrely dressed of the two, wearing something that looked straight out of an old picture she once saw of English people in the 1800s in some random history book: A suit with long sleeves and shorts, military boots with steel toes, a top hat and a cape with a metal cowbell/cross, all purple. He also had a pair circular-lensed glasses on his face, giving him an intellectual look. He was fighting with what appeared to be metal contraptions that suddenly appeared in front of himself to strike and defend.

However, even stranger was what he was fighting with: A large purple and silver marionette doll with short blond hair, blank white eyes and wearing a purple dress and hat was striking away at the man right alongside him, swinging its arms in powerful strikes or jabbing forward with its fingers, which Sayaka realized had to be some sort of blades. In fact, the doll seemed to even teleport around upon the boy's command, always trying to get in an advantageous position or even serve as a shield for her master.

Even as she watched, the doll suddenly lunged forward with its arm swinging, smashing the makeshift drill into the man's sword and forcing him back. The boy seemed to smile at the sight.

"Not bad, Ragna the Bloodedge," he called out. "You're much stronger than I had anticipated."

The doll continued to force the man, Ragna, back towards the edge of the roof. However, the white-haired man didn't seem that concerned. If anything, he just looked annoyed.

"You know kid, don't think just because you have a Nox Nyctores means you're gonna beat me," he replied. "You're only the fourth wielder I've fought since I've got here, and I got to say, you and your doll Nirvana have got to be the weakest of the bunch."

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as Sayaka could see the kid suddenly stiffened. "My sister is not a doll!" he suddenly yelled defensively. "Don't act like you know her!"

"Kid, I really don't care about your choice of family members..." Ragna quipped, then heaved against Nirvana and forced it back, slashing it across the chest for good measure, "but I do care about the fact that you're trying to pick a fight with me when you should be doing less hazardous for your health."

He suddenly rushed past Nirvana and made a beeline towards the boy, who tried to erect a shield in preparation for the blow. Ragna's arm snapped back and seemed to glow with a dark burst of energy, right before smashing against the shield and sending the boy tumbling back dangerously close to the edge. Luckily, his doll appeared to catch him.

Sayaka blinked from her position. "Was that... magic?" she asked herself. "Since when did normal people start using that?"

"I didn't start this fight kid," Ragna continued, causing Sayaka to shake herself out of her questioning mood to just watch. "And because I just don't feel into this one, I'm gonna break my usual rule of offering you one last chance to run and make it again. Either take it, or get ready for a world of hurt."

The kid rubbed his chest where the force of Ragna's blow had managed to impact regardless of the shield. "Sorry, but I can't do that," he replied after a moment. "I need that Azure Grimoire of yours, and you don't look like the kind of person who would just give it up to someone in need."

Ragna sighed. "Yeah, that'd be a bit difficult considering its literally my right arm. I don't feel like getting it cut off again. Once was enough."

The boy got back up. "Don't worry then, Grim Reaper," he replied. "My sister and I will make it quick!"

Both of them rushed towards Ragna, who stood there with one hand on his sword, waiting. Sayaka, still trying to wrap her mind around some of the terms the two had been throwing around and figure out exactly which one was the 'good guy' here, did nothing but watched as they closed the distance. Nirvana made it first, swinging its fist directly at Bloodedge. The white-haired man moved his body to the side to dodge, only to do so again when she quickly used her other fist as a follow-up. Ragna tried to put some distance between them, but Nirvana kept coming with the punches. Finally, he jumped upwards, attempting to get over the robot's attacks.

However, the boy had used the swordsman's distraction to loop around behind him, and when Ragna jumped so did he.

**"Allegretto!" **he shouted, pulling back his cape to reveal a little bronze robot with a green flag on a metal pole. The little golem then rapidly jabbed forward, its pole impacting with Ragna's back and sending him staggering away slightly. However, the red swordsman had no problems landing properly, and the moment he did, he turned and bounded back towards the young puppeteer with murder in his eyes. The blond seemed taken aback, but instead of running he stood his ground and threw his hand upwards.

**"Laetabilis Cantata!"** he yelled as he snapped his fingers, a giant yellow gear seemingly sprouting straight into existence and twirling at rapid speeds as it ground against the charging Ragna's body. To the warrior's credit, he didn't even flinch as he pulled his fist back and swung forward with that same darkness from before.

**"Hell's..."** he called out as it connected with the open boy, smacking into his chest. Not even stopping, he swung his other arm in an almost claw-like motion forward for a follow-up strike.

**"Fang!"**

To Sayaka's shock, what looked like a mass of red-and-black darkness shaped like some demonic creature's head snapped forward, its 'jaws' clamping down onto to the kid, who had raised his arm to protect himself, and sending him hurling dangerously close to the edge. However, the boy managed to stop his flight in time, though she could tell even from her position that that one had definitely hurt, considering the way he was gripping his arm and blood was starting to drip from it. She also thought she saw little balls of red light suddenly leave the boy and be absorbed into the man's right arm, but passed it off as a trick of the light.

"Ada!" the kid yelled, previous confidence vanishing into something resembling pain and worry, summoning his doll in front of him once again. "Now! **Volante!**"

Nirvana spun its arms and released a sphere of energy straight at Ragna. The swordsman responded bringing sword (wreathed once more in that dark aura from before) and slamming it down, connecting with the attack and causing a small explosion.

"Let's finish this!" the puppeteer shouted, **"****Rhapsody of Memories!**"

Nirvana responded, rushing forward with a powerful flurry of punches. However, Ragna didn't seem that worried even as the smoke cleared. If anything, he just looked kind of bored.

"My thoughts exactly!" he snapped back, then lifted his blade and rushed forward to meet her. **"Carnage Scissors!"**

Despite the seemingly suicidal action, Bloodedge was far from being in such a state of mind. Faster than Sayaka could effectively follow, he maneuvered himself into an opening between the doll's swings and brought his sword down right on her in a slamming motion, stopping her attack, then quickly twisted it back upwards whilst simultaneously striking the ground. **"I'll devour ya!"**

At his words, two crisscrossing spikes of that same dark energy thrust upwards and collided with the doll, sending it hurtling back with a clang. The puppeteer watched with horrified eyes as the doll skid to a halt a bit of distance from him, taking his eyes off of Ragna.

"Sis!" he yelled desperately and tried to go to it. However, Ragna crossed the distance and grabbed him, throwing a punch into his stomach for good measure, and then threw him to the roof, where he collided and rolled until he came to a rest near the doll, not moving.

Clearly the victor, the man started to walk towards the pair. Sayaka, fearing the worst, immediately got up, having seen enough. Even if from the sound of things the kid had been one who started it, she wasn't just gonna let the guy beat the crap out of him. From the looks of things, he had probably learned his lesson already.

However, the swordsman didn't attack. Instead, he just sort of stared down at the pair, moving back slightly when the doll suddenly got back up and moved in front of the puppeteer. What sounded like words were exchanged, but a sudden wind and the fact they were no longer shouting kept her from hearing exactly what was said. Finally, the man turned around to leave them.

"...Now scram, kid," she managed to catch him say. "You bother me."

She wasn't quite sure what happened next. It looked like the kid said something, but whatever it was caused the man to turn back around, right before the Nirvana doll jabbed its finger blade into his stomach.

Surprised by the suddenness of the action, Sayaka spent a moment or so just gawking while the man stumbled back, blood already dripping from his injury before he collapsed to the ground, dangerously close to the edge of the roof. She quickly shook herself out of it though.

'Stop freezing up, dammit!' she told herself, 'You're a Mahou Shoujo and semi-professional Witch-killer, not some loser novice cowering at the sight of blood! Act like it!'

She chose to ignore the potential hypocriticalness of her moral booster, as she _was_ a novice whose win record was a little spotty, and instead concentrated on making the jump to them.

'Alright,' she told herself before taking a few steps back, gripping her sword tightly. 'Here goes nothing!'

With that, she raced forward and kicked off the roof, rocketing straight towards the battleground, where the injured boy was slowly making his way towards the swordsman. She noticed that his doll seemed to be walking rather close to him as he did, and then she remembered that little comment about cutting off Ragna's arm. Considering Nirvana's finger blades, that might not actually be very impossible to do.

"HEY!" she yelled, hoping that her shout would at least slow them down. Sure enough, both humans paused and glanced about in confusion, while the doll remained as motionless as before. By that point, she had more or less made it (right over them as a matter of fact), and so she swung her sword down on the one that had the most potential to still be a threat, the purple doll Nirvana.

However, whether out of self-preservation or because she perceived her Master was in danger, the doll swung its arm upwards to meet her whilst simultaneously pushing the kid back. Metal met with a clang, and while Sayaka couldn't cause any obvious damage, the unexpected power behind her blow and the angle at which she had attacked at were enough to force both Nirvana and her Master back a bit.

She landed right in front of the injured swordsman, Ragna the Bloodedge, and took up a ready stance, just to show she was ready to fight if necessary.

"Wha-What?" the young puppeteer said in surprise, clearly not expecting someone to interfere in this fight. "Who...who are you supposed to be?"

'I'm still not entirely certain myself, honestly,' she admitted to herself, thinking about all the little revelations Kyubey had revealed about Mahou Shoujo, of which there were probably more she wasn't certain of. Still, she didn't dwell on that, instead choosing to answer both firmly and clearly.

"I don't know where I am, why I'm here or why I look like this, or even exactly what's going on here," she told the boy as clearly as she could. "But I can see when someone's in trouble. Because you'll hurt, I'll give you one chance to walk away now, kid. I won't warn you again, even if you're barely standing."

The kid, despite being obviously injured, was actually silent for a dumbfounded moment before he managed something she wasn't expecting: a pained chuckle. "Heh...wow," he said slowly, "that was actually a pretty good entrance. You still...didn't answer my question though..."

Sayaka scowled slightly. 'Well, so much intimidation...' she decided. "My name is Sayaka Miki. Since you're gonna be so talkative while bleeding out, what's yours?"

The boy coughed. "I think the one behind you...is in more danger of dying than me, Ms. Sayaka," he managed to get out. "But...if you're so insistent, my name is...Carl Clover." Slowly, he assumed (or tried to at least) a fighting stance. "And now...I'm going to have to ask you to kindly move aside."

Sayaka just blinked. "You're either delusional or just stupid if you think I'm gonna do that," she replied flatly. "And I'd really rather not beat up someone younger than me, especially when someone else's already done the job."

She could see Carl's eyes narrow. "Don't...underestimate me," he panted softly. "I don't need to be...at full strength to fight...you."

Sayaka just sighed. Even she could see when someone was just begging to get their ass handed to them, and this kid was literally on his knees for it. Also, she was sort of pressed for time right now, so...

'As good a time as any to see what I can still do at least,' she thought, trying to find a silver lining in this as she lifted her blade. "Alright then, kid, that was your last warning-"

A sudden shifting of stone from behind distracted her. Luckily for her, Carl didn't capitalize on it because he too was caught unaware by it. Both turned their attention to the man behind them...or rather, the empty space where the guy _had_ been.

"Ragna the Bloodedge...fell?" Carl said with increasing slowness, his injuries finally catching up to him as he suddenly collapsed.

"Aw crap!" Sayaka snapped, ignoring him as she peered over the edge to see, sure enough, the red swordsman's falling form.

Now, it must be remembered that Sayaka Miki was never one to completely think through everything. She hadn't done so when she accepted her contract as a Mahou Shoujo, and she neither when she made her wish. As a Mahou Shoujo, that tendency had resulted more often in not getting outclassed and her ass handed to her against a far-stronger opponent, Witch or otherwise. Even when she tried to find a way to escape the pain, even if it meant dying, she hadn't even bother to give full thought to the 'how' or even the full consequences (though she blamed the depression and corruption for not being in the right state of mind when she had.). That wasn't to say she _couldn't_ do so, just that she had a bad habit of occasionally flying off the handle and going by ear.

As such, confronted with her the object of her rescue falling with crumbling masonry from a roof towards the shattered streets below, her mind grabbed the first thought that came to her and her body reacted instantaneously to it.

"Hold on!" she yelled out loud as she jumped off the roof after him. "I'll catch you!"

* * *

><p>Carl watched her go, already succumbing to his injuries. "Is she...an idiot?" he asked no one in particular. "There's no way...she can...catch..."<p>

He collapsed to the roof in a heap, eyes already shutting. 'Dammit...'

However, had he stayed conscious for a few moments longer, he would have caught sight of green and red blur heading straight for the roof, bounding upon it with leaps and grace far greater than Sayaka had managed.

The man, for that was what the blur was, knelt down next to the boy. He was a tall and well-built figure, with an X-shaped scar over his face, spiky brown hair fashioned into a messy ponytail in the back, muscled immensely (which his green open shirt and red scarf let anyone know instantly), and wearing a strange sort of ninja attire which include the mentioned shirt and scarf, dark green hakama pants that exposed his thighs, metal boots and a pair of silver gauntlets over his black-gloved hands. However, the most arresting thing about his was the massive grey nail, almost as big as he was, that he wore on his back.

"Master Carl?" he said in a voice that, while rather soft for his standards, was still rather boisterous and strong, as if he spent a great deal of time shouting. "I heard a commotion and came as quickly as I could, but I never expected...this! Curses, I was too late!"

Quickly picking up the boy, he also grabbed the doll near him, laying as if its invisible strings were cut. "Master Carl, you must hang on!" he told the blond boy. "I shall take you to the hospital immediately! You mustn't go into the light, Master Carl!"

Not receiving an answer, nor was he expecting one, the ninja quickly jumped off the roof, heading straight for the more populous area of the city.

* * *

><p>'Maybe I should have thought through this one a little better,' Sayaka thought to herself as she fell after Bloodedge. 'C'mon, just a little more!'<p>

He was currently about half of the way down and she a quarter, but thanks to the extra speed boost she had given herself off the roof, she was fast approaching him. However, she realized that at the speed they were falling, even if she did manage to catch him she'd probably have about four or five seconds before they became a large pancake on the ground. And while she could probably come back from that thanks to her healing ability, she doubted Ragna had similar health coverage.

'Think think think...' she chanted to herself as she got closer to Bloodedge, now about three-fifths of the way down, only about 40 meters to go. Stretching her hand, she managed to grasp the hem of his coat and tug on it. 'Don't have long now!'

They now had 25 meters. Sayaka blinked as she came up with nothing save one thing, and it was guaranteed to bring a world of hurt.

'This is gonna suck,' she decided, but gritted her teeth as she grasped him with both hands.

14 meters.

Sayaka grunted as she tried to shift Ragna's position. 'C'mon...'_  
><em>

8 meters.

'Almost there...'

2 meters.

'Got it-'

The impact of crumbling yet still very solid concrete on her flesh-and-blood body broke off any remaining thoughts. Instead, she focused on trying not to scream as something gave way beneath the pair and they tumbled on through.

* * *

><p>Rachel watched from a nearby building with barely veiled interest as the new Azure and the Grim Reaper fell through the newly-created hole together. She was honestly surprised to see that this new puzzle piece had already come into contact with Ragna this early into everything, having hoped to meet the girl first and learn exactly who and what she was.<p>

'I suppose it can't be helped though,' she admitted with a small sigh. 'That fool has a strange habit of attracting almost everything of interest to his side, whether he's aware of it or not, in any timeline.'

She had been observing the girl for only a short time (roughly when she had hunkered down to watch Ragna and Carl fight) and was surprised to see that the bearer of the Azure's power was so young, and yet she seemed to also carry herself like a warrior of some sort (inexperienced yes, but she had the air of a fighter nonetheless). Rachel had been prepared to intervene if necessary, and had been about to when she saw her jump to rescue that oaf from falling, though she had held back because she wanted to see how the Azure child would save him.

She hadn't been expecting her to just absorb the shock of the impact with her own body though, an act that was tantamount to suicide for most.

Still, she wasn't _too_ concerned. The girl had seemed to know what she was doing, and if where they had fallen was any indication, they would likely end up in the Kaka Village. That was about as safe as any place a pair such as them could end up hurt and unconscious, and they would no doubt receive medical attention.

On the other hand she was...disappointed, for lack of a better term. Having lived and watched this world for several thousand years, the same players on the stage with slightly different roles each loop, she had grown accustomed to it all in that bored way she always projected. To have a truly new person on the board after so long, unfettered to all sides and the potential to change things like never before...it both excited and frightened her in ways she had long since thought past her.

To see that she had yet to do any such thing already, even if it was far too early into events, made her just a little...saddened.

'Perhaps I'm being too hasty,' she thought to herself. 'She is still a child, after all. And I have nowhere near enough knowledge of her to draw conclusions as to how much help she will be in the coming days...'

"I believe I might have a plan for Valkenhayn after all," she said out loud.

"Really?" Gii asked from next to her. "What?"

"Likely some sort training session," Nago replied. "Though I doubt she'll be in any good condition for it after that little fall."

"Nago, do not presume to know what I will do," Rachel reprimanded the cat, though she refrained from striking. "As for you Gii..."

"Y-Yes?" the bat asked worriedly, already having a feeling of what was coming.

He went flying a little ways when Rachel struck him. Only a light tap this time though. "Do not ask foolish questions when I clearly wasn't talking to you."

"Y-Yes ma'am..."

"Before that though..." she then said as she opened another portal. "We have a meeting with a certain 'hero'..."

As she stepped within, she wondered whether she should share the existence of the girl with him when they met. Admittedly, he probably wouldn't see her as the same potential ally she did (an unfortunate failing of his, his stubborn pride) but it would be better than to let him discover her himself and draw his own assumptions and conclusions.

After all, the 'White Susanoo', for all his power and reliability, was often no better at flying off the handle now as he was in his youth.

* * *

><p><em><strong>3rd Hierarchical City of Iwasu (NOL Branch)<strong>_

A man sat at his desk within his office at the NOL Branch, white-gloved hands crossed over a purple-shirted chest as he stared off into space, deep in thought. He was a tall and rather broad man, wearing in addition to his previously mentioned attire white baggy tights tucked into stylized black and purple boots with golden toecaps and white and gold cuffs. Upon his face was a golden opera mask with black marks that obscured his eyes. Next to his desk on a rack was a knee-length magenta cape with a golden X-shaped fixture to hold it in place when worn and two rings protruding out of the lower front halves.

He was not unhandsome, with light blond hair and some beard stubble about the lower parts of his face. However, it was also a face that didn't look it smiled much, or rather, that smiled at things normal people usually wouldn't. Said face was currently in an expression of well-practiced apathy, a mask for the brilliant mind at work within as he attempted to solve some grand problem known only to him.

He was interrupted when the phone rang. Looking down, he reached for it, lifting it to his ear without a change to his expression.

"Hello?" he said in a strong baritone.

"Oh hey, Colonel Relius!" a chipper man's voice said over the line. "Glad to see you're still in today!"

"What do you want, Hazama?" Relius asked back, not bothering to play the man's games. "This is a secure line. What's gotten you so worked up you need to talk to me now?"

"Well, right to the point, as always. Sheesh, what a killjoy..." Hazama grumbled over the line.

"I'm hanging up now."

"Okay, okay!" Hazama interrupted him. "Alright, straight to business...you remember the 12th Prime Field Device?"

"Yes, what of it? A failed experiment, that's all it was."

"Normally, I'd agree with you...if it wasn't for the fact that it's inherited the Eye."

Relius blinked. While his face didn't change beyond that and his voice not at all, he settled more into his chair. "Really?"

"Yessir," Hazama confirmed, sounding pleased that his colleague was much more invested in what he had to say now. "Turns out our little sword was actually a diamond in the rocks all along. It just needed some polishing to bring it out."

"Where is it now?"

"The 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi. I'm already here now getting things ready."

"Kagutsuchi..." That name brought back memories. "And the 13th?"

"No doubt melted in the Cauldron," Hazama replied. "Don't worry about it. Look, normally I would have just done this myself, but I might need some...backup with a couple of things. Just to keep that shitty vampire and the damn cat off my back."

"And so you came to me," Relius guessed. "Anything else?"

"Uh...yeah, there is, actually..." Hazama admitted. Relius gave the phone a slight cursory eyebrow. That tone Hazama used...it was almost...worried.

"Go on..." he prompted.

"Well, in a purely hypothetical situation, what would you say if I told you there's another Azure user running around in the city as of this very moment, one whose potential could perhaps rival the Kusanagi's?" Hazama asked him. "And when you obviously decide to say I'm playing around and stop talking nonsense, I also tell I'm being dead serious and I have no idea how the hell it happened?"

For the first time, a real emotion passed over Relius's face: Surprise. He was silent for the longest of moments, then replied. "...Well, I'd say you've certainly piqued my interest. Another Azure? That is certainly something that bodes research into."

"And that's where you come in, Relius old boy," Hazama replied. "I can handle the vampire and the cat. Hell, I can deal with the damn sword and even the justice-crazy-samurai. I can't, however, deal with another Azure this late in the game...at least, not without giving one of those little shits a shot at blowing this whole thing to hell. I want you in Kagutsuchi, and I need you to handle whoever this new pawn of the Master Unit is before it becomes an annoyance."

"...Very well," Relius replied after a moment of silence. "I'm curious to see the Eye in action personally, plus there are one or two things I wish to...test, for lack of a better term. As for the new Azure..."

"Do whatever the hell you want," Hazama replied dismissively. "Kill it, beat it into an inch of its life, use it for your sicko experiments, rape it. I really don't give a shit. Just make sure it stays out of _my_ shit."

"As you wish. Anything else I should be aware of?"

"Hm? Oh, aside from the Yayoi bitch, who I just gave additional orders to be on the lookout for anything really out of the ordinary along with her 'kill-on-sight' ones, nope, not really. Anyways, be seeing you on the upside, Colonel Clover!"

A click as Hazama hung up on his end. Relius quickly followed suit, then spent a moment just staring off into space.

'A new Azure...truly this is unprecedented...' he thought to himself. Slowly, a grin began to split his face, and it was not pleasant in the slightest. Standing up from his desk, he immediately grabbed his cape from its rack, throwing it on with a dramatic gesture. He then pressed the button on his intercom button.

"Lieutenant Janice?"

"Yes, Colonel Clover?" came a pleasant female voice over the line, though he could just barely hear an undercurrent of worry within. "Is there something you require?"

"Clear any appointments I might have; I'll be gone for a couple of days. Business in Kagutsuchi calls to me."

"Yessir. Shall I inform the NOL branch there ahead of time?"

"No. I will deal with it personally. That will be all."

"Yessir."

With that taken care of, Relius began to walk towards the door. 'Even if this Azure's no doubt in the grasp of one inexperienced, let us see whether or not its power is truly as mighty as they claim...' he thought to himself as he snapped his fingers. Behind him, a deep red doll striking similar to Nirvana appeared, but with key differences: Its hat had two golden rings on the front to Nirvana's one and had two extensions in the back that reached down to its ankles, and its finger blades were hooked and seemingly sharper than Nirvana's. However, the biggest difference was in the eyes: Compared to Nirvana's opaque, pupil-less ones with a line running down under one of them, this doll had one under both eyes, both of which were far more humanlike by having irises and being a deep blue.

"We depart, Ignis," he told the doll. "The time has come for a true test of your power."

* * *

><p><strong>Wow, this one was <em>way <em>longer than I was expecting it to be. Oh well, should do for now. So, we got some things from Sayaka's perspective, and now she's joined up with Ragna the Bloodedge (not exactly official yet, but we'll get there)! Rachel watches from afar, and now Relius takes an interest!**

**What will await Sayaka and Rags as they plummet to the Kaka Village? How does Rachel intend to test the Mahou Shoujo? What the heck going on with the rest of the BlazBlue cast? And what will Relius bring to the table? Find out next time!_  
><em>**

**Review, fav, and follow people! Tell me what you thought!**


	3. Gathering Powers

**Hello everybody! This is X the Reaper, bringing you the next installment of Mahou Shoujo of the Continuum Shift! Today, Sayaka gets her first real battle!**

**Disclaimer: BlazBlue and Puella Magi Madoka Magica are property of Gen Urobuchi and Arc System Works respectively and to any other parties. X the Reaper owns nothing save the story.**

**Alright, let's go!**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Below Kagutsuchi<strong>_

Sayaka had to admit, there were some advantages to being the equivalent of a self-aware zombie. In addition to the fact she had far greater endurance and durability than would be expected of a normal girl her age, it also meant that any damage to her body couldn't really kill her (as long as her Soul Gem wasn't destroyed) and would eventually regenerate given sufficient time. In fact, due to the nature of her wish, Sayaka's own regenerative abilities were actually almost twice as fast as the average Mahou Shoujo, meaning she could quickly get back into a fight if injured.

It also came with the ability to block out the sensation of pain so that she could literally be almost totally hacked apart and keep going like nothing happened. After what doing that had led her to though, she had no intentions of relying on it again without extreme reasoning.

Despite all that though, it didn't matter to her right then and there, because there was a simple fact she was being reacquainted with: Smacking into concrete after jumping off a building hurt, especially when you were supporting someone else's weight from impacting as well.

And it especially hurt if said concrete gave way beneath you and you both started plummeting down a giant hole in the ground for who knows how long, only knowing that it was gonna hurt all over again when you finally stopped.

Sayaka was pretty sure she broke her spine and cracked her skull on impact, mostly because she couldn't feel anything below her lower back and her vision was extremely blurry. She was also certain she broke at least one arm, if the way it had flopped almost uselessly from its iron grip on Ragna the Bloodedge was any indication. And the pain. Couldn't forget that, as muted as it was.

She could almost feel her bones reset themselves as they continued to fall, and then she twisted her neck after her eyes recovered to see exactly where they were falling to their new doom. To her surprise, she caught sight of what looked like some sort of grassy hill and a small village nearby.

'Wait a minute, I thought we just fell through the street...' Sayaka thought to herself, then looked back up. To her surprise, she could actually see a giant mass of metal above them, along with giant supports rising upwards as if the city's foundations were built to be literally _above _the ground.

Sayaka would have probably gawked a little longer, but the realization of their impending second crash dashed that impulse. Looking down, she realized the grassy hill was fast approaching.

'Well, maybe this time it won't be so bad,' she tried to comfort herself. 'I mean, a bunch of dirt and grass has got to hurt way less than concrete, right?'

Turning her gaze to her 'companion', she tried to reach out and grab him. It took some doing, including the awkward process of moving correcting in freefall, but she managed to get her arms around Ragna again, positioning herself to take the brunt of the impact once again.

As the ground rose to meet them, Sayaka turned her head to look at the still-unconscious Bloodedge in the face, feeling she had to say something for all the abuse she was going through to make sure he wasn't anymore injured than her currently was.

"You owe me for this, you bastard," she managed to get out, the wind no doubt silencing her attempts at a warning. She then shut her eyes and braced for impact.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Kaka Village Outskirts<strong>_

Taokaka yawned as she walked back from the village, preparing to go back her nap. She knew that she had just promised the Village Elder that she would head out from the village to become an amazing warrior, but a major part of her just didn't want to leave at all. She loved the village. Why would she want to leave it? But she also knew she needed to...

'Ah...it's too hard to think about this right neow!' she thought to herself as she neared the area where she had been resting. 'Tao'll just take a nap right now and work on it later!'

Finally reaching the sunlight-blessed spot (one of the few truly cleared areas, even after scruffy man brought the sunlight down here!), the catgirl prepared to sit down and sleep the remainder of the sunset away. Before she did so though, something quite literally fell from the sky and landed just a few yards away with a _thump _into the grass. Quickly jerking back, Tao blinked at the unmoving lump in the distance before her mind settled on the most obvious conclusion to whatever it was.

"Oh boy, a great big slab of meat!" she said with glee, quickly racing over towards the crash site. "Talk about lucky! And since no else's here, I guess I'll just-"

"Owwwaahhh..."

"Grahhhhhhh..."

Tao stopped at the groaning noises. Meat didn't make pain moans. Tilting her head, she moved slower as she came closer. Come to think of it, one of the shapes looked strangely familiar...

"Whoa, it's good guy meow!" Tao realized as her eyes widened, then quickly shouted towards him. "Hey, what happened to you? You look like a blood sprinkler."

Good Guy managed to turn his head towards her voice, just a hint of recognition in his eyes. It quickly faded as they rolled back into his head, effectively going unconscious after one last pain-wracked groan filled the air.

The other shape slowly tried to drag itself up, wobbling for a moment before falling down again, another groan escaping her. Tao quickly raced over to her side.

"Hey, what's wrong?" she asked the blue girl. "You look pretty beat up. Did something happen meow?"

"Wh-What?" blue girl asked as she turned her head towards Tao, blinking for a couple of seconds as if trying to adjust her eyes. The moment she did though, she suddenly lunged back with a pain cry, shifting just enough that Tao could see her fish tail flop.

Tao's eyes widened like she had just seen the greatest wealth in the universe. As if on cue, her stomach growled, something that did not go unnoticed by the blue-haired girl.

"H-Hey!" Fishy Lady (as Tao had officially labeled her in mind) yelled. "Stop staring!"

Tao looked up and had the sense to look slightly embarrassed. "Oh! Uh...sorry about that. Tao hasn't eaten in hours and is getting reeeaaalllly hungry!" she told Fishy Lady while rubbing her stomach. "Good Guy usually buys me food, but he's all asleep right neow!"

"'Good Guy'?" Fishy Lady repeated, then looked over at the unconscious swordsman. "You mean this guy?"

Tao nodded emphatically. "Yeah! He fed Tao when she was starving in the streets! Good Guy's my hero!"

Fishy Lady looked between the two of them for a moment. "Uh...who are you exactly?"

"I'm Tao!" Tao replied, holding out her cat sleeve in a handshake gesture. "Nice to meet you Fishy Lady!"

"F-Fishy Lady?" Fishy Lady repeated incredulously. "I'm not..." Suddenly, she looked down and seemed to notice her tail for the first time. She sighed in defeat. "Okay, I guess you got me there."

"Okay!" Tao said happily, then looked back at Good Guy. "Still, Good Guy shouldn't be sleeping in a field like this meow. Tao's nap spot is Tao's only, so I guess I should take him to the village."

"Village?" Fishy Lady asked. "You mean the one over there?"

"Yeah, that one!" Tao then reached down and lifted Good Guy over her shoulders and onto to her back, despite Fishy Lady's shock and half-hearted efforts to get her to put him back down. "Want to come with us meow?"

Fishy Lady looked slightly doubtful for a moment, then nodded. Slowly, she tried to get back to her feet before falling down again.

"Darn it," she muttered. "My body's not healing as fast now. What's going on?"

"Huh?" Tao asked. "Can't you walk, Fishy Lady? Does Tao need to carry you too?"

Fishy Lady paused as if in thought, then shook her head. "Don't worry about it Tao. Just give me a second..."

Tao was about to ask why, but was stopped when a green light suddenly exploded from underneath Fishy Lady. Musical notes floated up from around her as a song like a lullaby started playing. Tao was mesmerized by the sight, her eyes staring unblinkingly as the bewitching black images.

After a few seconds, the circle faded. Fishy Lady got to her feet and this time stayed on them.

"Whoa..." Tao breathed. "That was so pretty...like magic. Meow. Can you do it again?"

Fishy Lady smiled. "Yeah, I guess it is, but maybe another time." She then looked at Good Guy with some concern. "You sure you can carry him safely by yourself?"

Tao smiled. "Yessiree, Magical Fishy Lady! With Tao watching him, it'll be like a dream!"

She punctuated that statement by lifting both of her arms up in an excited gesture, accidentally letting go of her burden. Good Guy fell to the ground with a soft groan. The two of them looked at him before Fishy Lady turned back to Tao.

"Eheheheheh...sorry?"

"Let me help anyway," Fishy Lady deadpanned. "Just to make sure things don't go wrong."

Suddenly, Tao's ears twitched as she caught wind of something that sounded...wet and slimy coming closer to them.

"Huh? Who's there?" Tao asked as she glanced around. Fishy Lady just looked at her in confusion.

"Uh Tao, we're the only ones who are here - _oh what the hell is that!?_" Fishy Lady finished in something that was half-girly shriek, half-scared yell.

Behind them, some sort of big blob of what could best be described as black goo with some red thrown in oozed towards them, smelling of rot and death. Upon it's 'face' was a white mask carved with two eyeholes and one small circular mouthhole. That wasn't what was disturbing though. It was the fact it was 'staring' at Good Guy like he was six-course meal.

"Gupu gupupu..." it gurgled/mumbled at them.

Tao's eyes narrowed. "Squiggly! Not you again meow!"

'Squiggly' seemed to shift in place, its attention never once leaving Good Guy. "I thought I h... c..u...t scen.. of Azure h..re, but...Gupupu... I seemed t.. ..ve ...m.. acr...s.. some...g of interest me...

Fishy Lady stepped in front of Good Guy, holding out one of her hands. "Tao, get ready to run with Ragna..." she told the Kaka, suddenly making a blade appear in her hand like magic. "I'll try to cover you while we run..."

Tao's attention though was sadly not on her words.

"Where'd you get that sword!?" Tao said with enthusiasm befitting a child. "Are you really magic, Fishy Lady?"

"Does it really matter right now!?" Fishy Lady snapped back. "Just get ready to run!"

The blob now looked at her. "You ..re... d..fer..t. ...u f s..th.. Yo.. smell ... Azure. Gupupu...Pure Azure. Azure Azure Azure!"

Forget what said about it staring at Ragna like a six-course meal. It was looking at her like she was an all-you-can-eat buffet.

"I w.n..d t.. e... you! Wh..re ..s Azure? G..ve ..t to me...Give t.. ..e...Give it to me NOW!"

With that, the blob jumped straight at her, suddenly making a bunch of bones wretch out its body in the form of a clawed limb.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Sector Seven (Nearly Dark)<strong>_

Within one of the most secure chambers of Sector Seven, a lone shadow sat in perfect stillness, in front of some giant gate of sorts, sealed shut. About him, golden lines and shapes of magic bound his form every which way, covering the entire room. The seals were strong, and not even one with the power to destroy an entire city could hope to break free of them once bound.

This was no exaggeration, for the being within was perfectly capable of doing such and more if he so desired. He was a tall man, covered from head to toe in semi-heavy white armor and a muscular body suit with a large collar, almost like some sort of cyborg, with the traditional hakama present and ballooning pants common in samurai. His long silver hair was tied in a ponytail, and all over his armored parts were black slits, almost like shut eyes. However, most intimidating of all was the mask he wore; a completely white, two horned helmet with no features or visor, appearing to have no face at all. Upon his back was a sheathed nodachi almost as tall as he was, with a red sheath, golden guard and pommel, black grip and blue gem embedded in the pommel. Like a caged beast he waited, silent as he remembered events of days long past.

_"Ugh...Cat, we have no other choice! Kill him!"_

_"But-"_

_"It's alright. Do what must be done, Cat!"_

_"Urg... I'm sorry Hakumen. Sekigan, OPEN!"_

_"Hrg...huh? Wha...wait, are you serious? Wh-What the hell is this thing? Wh-Why wasn't I told about this?!"_

_"Terumi... It seems that it will be you who dies with me and not the cat."_

A sudden faint noise stirred the being from his memory-filled slumber. He opened his eyes, the black slits positioned on his shoulders, hands and various other parts of his body snapping open to reveal red with slit pupils, and glanced about. He could see nothing in the darkness, yet he someone was there. And he had a feeling he knew who it was.

"I know you are there, vampire," he called out in a low voice. "Cease your sneaking about."

As if on cue, the form of Rachel Alucard appeared above him, giving him that little smirk.

"Well, it is good to see you're up and about, Mr. Hero," she told him in her usual sarcastic manner. "You've saved me the chore of having to wake you."

"What is that you want? And spare me your useless efforts at conversation. If you desire to simply torment me, go elsewhere."

"My my," she clicked her tongue. "As rude and disrespectful as always. And what will you do if I don't? You appear to be a little tied up at the moment with nowhere to go." She looked up at the golden circles that bound him. "I will admit I'm slightly impressed with the power and complicatedness of this protective circle. It took me almost five minutes to circumvent it. Practically forever! Truly you must have value to Sector Seven...or perhaps I should say Kokonoe?"

"Whatever plans the grimalkin has made are of no concern to me," he replied stoically, waiting for her to get to her point.

"And of me?"

He grunted. So _that's_ what she wanted. "A foolish question. You are already aware of the answer."

She raised an eyebrow. "How dull. Aren't you bored just staring at a sealed Cauldron all day, bound like some sort of dog or something more...deviant? I offer your freedom, after all."

"And would have me serve as your slave," he countered with a snort. "I would be but trading one fool for another. I would rather wait another thousand years before serving as your dog."

"I prefer to think of it as 'servant', MY servant," Rachel replied. "To serve a lady such as myself is quite the honor, you know."

"Um...princess," the red bat near her suddenly blurted out, "You're starting to act like you're some sort of domi-Eyyaaaah!"

She immediately grabbed it and slammed it into the ground with her heel. The white warrior, Hakumen, simply watched emotionlessly as the bat professed apologies and the cat denied having any similar thoughts. 'Fools, the lot of them.'

"Even if you sought to free me and I agreed to serve," Hakumen interrupted them, "the code keeping me bounded randomly changes 500 lines every few seconds. Even you could not break it."

"Is that a challenge, Mister Hero?" Rachel asked him. "Truly your brain has rotted along with your manners in your time here if you believe that."

Suddenly, the chains binding him exploded, dissolving into golden light. Hakumen stared for a moment before slowly getting to his feet.

"You...You broke the seal?!"

"It wasn't too terribly difficult," she replied flippantly. "Complicated as I would expect from someone of Kokonoe's standing, even forcing me to actually try for a few moments, but once one grasps the theory of her 'science', the rest is rather easy. I was hoping to have some decent conversation with you while I dealt with the lock, but your attitude made that rather unpleasant."

"I have no need of companionship from the likes of you," he snapped back, already on his feet and slowly moving his hands. While he technically didn't need to given his...condition, old habits of the body die hard even after 100 years. "And my answer is still the same: No."

"Not even a 'thank you' for releasing you?" Rachel asked with mock hurt. "I'm shocked by your callousness. Have you no tack for treating your betters with respect? Well then, what if I decided to add more to it: Takamagahara has begun its move."

Hakumen stiffened. "What?"

"Terumi has also begun to establish his existence, no thanks in part to the power of Noel Vermillion, who has inherited the Eye," Rachel continued, all prior amusement gone from her voice. "Now that she has, time has begun to move and she is now immortal. And to add to it all, we're currently in a continuum shift. Anything can happen, and most likely will."

"And you did nothing but watch?" he asked her with growing hostility.

"...That is true."

Hakumen felt his rage grow. "Why? You have seen this happen countless times, and yet you still do nothing but WATCH?!"

"I have no excuse for my inaction," she replied calmly. "As I was and still am, I am incapable of anything save indirect action. All I could do was watch."

Hakumen drew the blade upon his back, revealing that it had an oddly blunt tip at the end. "Damn you!" he roared, pointing it directly at her. "If you truly wished the best for this world, you would be actively attempting to defeat Terumi!"

Both of the vampire's familiars immediately jumped in front of her. "Princess!"

Rachel, for her part, simply stared at the white warrior silently without fear. "Do not think for a moment I am not or wish I could," she replied coldly, all traces of even the faintest playfulness or mockery gone. "I once attempted to do as such against Terumi. It did not end well, for myself or the world at large. However, I will not allow your stubbornness to be an end to the future of the world in this timeline. Test me if you desire, Susanoo, and I will show you why I am still a credible threat even with the loss of some of my...stronger abilities."

Hakumen paused for a moment, not at the threat in her words, but the meaning behind them. "You...you've lost your official title as Observer...but that means...you opened the Tsukuyomi Unit?!" He shook his head. "You fool...do you realize what that means?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh my, so a brain still floats in that empty helmet after all. Yes, I did and do, and with it I lost some of my power. Now perhaps you grasp the seriousness of this situation and why I need your aid."

Hakumen stared at her for the longest of moments, then grunted as he resheathed his blade. "I do...and so be it. I shall grant you my assistance."

"No, I will have your unquestioning loyalty and service," Rachel corrected him. "Please do pay attention."

Hakumen grunted in response, paying her words no mind. "Answer me one thing though."

"Which is?"

"Why would you go so far for the Beast?"

Rachel's gaze softened just slightly. She knew exactly who he spoke of. "Simple. Because he's still quite human, and I feel that he is deserving of salvation after everything that has ever happened to him."

Hakumen had no answer for that.

"...There is another thing you should also made aware of," Rachel continued, just a hint of hesitation in her words, something that Hakumen immediately picked up on. "Something that I, Terumi, and not even Takamagahara could ever have predicted happening."

"What is it?"

"...The Azure. There is another who bears its true power within Kagutsuchi, one whose power could perhaps rival Noel Vermillion."

Hakumen felt all the eyes on his form widened as far as they could. "Impossible! There can only be one such existence at a time!"

"It is not impossible," Rachel corrected him. "In fact, I observed the girl who had it traveling with Ragna the Bloodedge not too long before I came here. That power is real. Faint and yet untapped, but very real."

"But how?" Hakumen asked her, still completely struck dumb by this fact.

"I can only conclude one possible existence," Rachel replied. "The Master Unit itself."

"It has chosen to intervene directly?" Hakumen spoke in disbelief. "Huh...so even the so-called 'god' of our world has decided that now is the time to act."

"I told you of this for a sole purpose," Rachel warned him. "To ensure you would not destroy her on the off-chance you somehow met her under the impression she was a pawn of Terumi."

"I shall not do so," Hakumen assured her, then added. "However, that does not mean I will not fight her to see if she is ready for the trials of the coming days."

"I would expect nothing less of a battle-loving warrior such as yourself," Rachel replied. "Just try not to _too_ badly injure her if you must fight. She could very well be the deciding factor we need in order to defeat Terumi's plans."

"I make no promises."

"You seem rather fine with an outsider taking a role in all of this," Rachel noted. "I expected a much more...dramatic response from you."

"If this being has been chosen by the Master Unit itself, then there is no need for me to intervene. I shall trust its judgement...for now."

Rachel's face grew slightly more serious. "Well then, I believe our chat draws to a close. I assume Kokonoe is still your primary observer?"

"You might."

She rolled her eyes at his sarcasm. "One must wonder why I even bother. Very well, I shall be the prime observer, then. Are you prepared?"

"I need not hold back, yes?" Hakumen replied as he redrew his blade, though this time it was without anger and malice.

Rachel offered him a small smirk as Nago shifted to his umbrella form and Gii jumped up near her head. "Oh my. Did you intend to?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Kaka Village Outskirts<strong>_

Most people Sayaka's age would probably run and scream for their lives if a giant smelly blob of goo with bone claws came rushing at them, intent on eating them alive like something out of a horror film, and a couple of weeks ago, Sayaka would have joined them happily. But she was no helpless little girl; she was a Mahou Shoujo who had fought and killed creatures even more horrifying that this during her stint as a 'Sword of Justice'. For her, this was just part of the job and this thing was like something out of a B-rated, cheesy horror film compared to some of the things she had seen.

So once the initial shock of seeing this thing in front of her wore off, she had immediately met the creature's charge with her sword, her blade slicing through the bony limb it had crafted. She quickly lunged forward to stab it, but 'weak-spot' didn't really mean anything against something like this. The moment her blade made contact, it was like puncturing a bag of water or something, easily passing into its form and out the other end, black goop covering the exposed end.

She tried to pull back, but two spikes of goo suddenly extended from its chest, forcing her to let go of her sword and move back. Quickly conjuring two more, she sliced the goop tendrils off, watching as her old sword seemed to be _corroding _after spending too long in the creature's fluids.

'Probably shouldn't let that touch me for too long,' she decided, bringing her swords back up in a defensive maneuver. 'God, that's just disgusting.'

"Azure," the creature mumbled. "Give me the Azure!"

Sayaka could feel her gut twist slightly in fear and confusion at the creature's increasingly jittery actions, especially with the one word she could definitely make out from its garbling.

'What the heck is an 'Azure'? Does it have something to do what that Carl kid was talking about?'

She narrowed her eyes. "What the heck are you talking about?" she asked it. "What's this Azure?"

"Y.. don'... kn..w?" the goo-monster asked. "But y.. h..ve so mu..h, ..o p..r.. how co...l..n't you k...w?"

She would have said she couldn't understand it, but then it lunged forward, morphing into a giant mouth. She quickly sidestepped and swung her swords, slicing off more of the goop, but her attacks didn't seem to really be hurting it. As if to prove it, Squiggly (she just decided to use Tao's name for it) then jumped into the air and spun around like a top, forming more spikes as it fell.

Sayaka quickly jumped away again, meeting its bone limbs once again as it extended them. However, she couldn't help but feel she wasn't doing any real damage to it with just physical attacks. 'I need something bigger,' she decided. 'But what?'

She rushed forward, slicing down into Squiggly with a powerful diagonal cut. Her strike cut clean through it, and this time it seemed to have some effect, if the way it suddenly convulsed and tried to get back meant anything. Heartened, she pressed her assault before it could do anything, aiming for the center mass with powerful slashes, not stabs. Three more similar blows later, she felt like she was getting the hang of this.

Right up until it stopped retreating and seemed to tense up though. Her blade came down and seemed to strike a solid wall of goo, scraping along its form. Before she could recover, the blob immediately lunged forward with a similarly solid tentacle, knocking it out of her hand and wrapping around her waist, bringing her up and slamming her into the ground, before repeating the maneuver again and again with increasing hardness.

'Tao better be getting help,' she thought to herself as she was slammed again. 'She better not have just left me hanging like-'

**"Taokaka Magnum!"**

Suddenly, Sayaka was aware of the tentacle letting her go as Squiggly went flying back, tackled by Tao. They rolled for a few seconds before Tao ended up on top and made metal claws appear out of her sleeves like a cat (which made sense, considering she seemed to be some sort of catgirl) and started pummeling it before kicking it into the air.

"Fishy Lady, hurry up!" she called out, then jumped upwards and started beating the blob up even more before it managed to break free by twirling and forming goo-spikes again.

Sayaka got back to her feet with effort using the sword she had managed to hold on to and watched as the two went at it, realizing she needed something bigger than her usual firepower if she wanted to finish this thing off quickly and protect Tao. She remembered when fellow Mahou Shoujo Mami Tomoe created a giant cannon to finish off her opponents instead of just a musket...maybe she could do something similar. Looking down at her dissolving blade, she threw it away.

"All right then," she decided, shutting her eyes, 'Let's see if I gained anything new aside from just an appearance change.' Concentrating, she tried to envision something stronger than her normal sword, maybe something larger than the usual cutlass. She thought of one of those giant broadswords that knights in the storybooks used and tried to imagine one forming in her hands. She 'felt' something shift in her hands in response, a tingle of sorts, and so she opened her eyes to see what had happened.

If she had been expecting a giant sword, she was disappointed. She was still holding her normal cutlass, though it seemed strangely cleaner than before, glinting with a weird light-blue light.

Before she could express her disappointment and confusion to what it meant, a yell distracted her. Looking up, she saw Tao fall to the ground, blood spilling from her right shoulder as she clamped a hand to it. Squiggly landed near her, blood on his bone limb. Eyes widening, Sayaka quickly tried to close the distance, but she watched with growing horror as it lifted the bone to finish Tao off.

"NO!" she yelled, pulling back her hand to hurl her blade at it.

That's when things got weird.

She wasn't certain what it was, but Sayaka felt something (Not quite her magic. She knew what her magic felt like and this felt more like a fusion of it and something else.) surge through her body and seemingly concentrate into her sword. At the same time, her hand didn't let go of her sword as she swung back forward, even as she tried to force it to.

The weirdest and coolest part? When a surge of blue energy blasted out of her sword as she finished her swing and hurled towards Squiggly in the shape of a massive crescent-moon. The blob monster, distracted by her shout, turned its 'face' just in time to get hit point-blank.

"GGGGAAOOOAHHH!" It screeched as it went flying back, the attack having not only sheared it in half, but also seemed to be dissolving goo where it had struck. It fell to the ground, writhing in pain as came back together with smoke seemingly coming off every portion of it. "Wh-What i.. th..s... Wh.. is ..is?! N..t Azure b... Azure is ...e. Gyyaaahhh!"

Sayaka looked down at her sword in shock, noticing that the blade was literally gone, leaving only the handle. "What the...What was that?"

Concentrating, she tried to form another sword. Another cutlass appeared, the same glowing light on it as before. However, when she swung it towards Squiggly, no energy blast came out. She didn't feel that 'spark' from before.

Still, she charged forward, new blade at the ready. Squiggly saw her coming and tried to shoot another goo tentacle at her. She swung her sword on instinct, and to her surprise it cut clean through the goo, the magic aura around it seemingly protecting the metal from any potential corrosion. She continued her charge and cut deeply into the blob, forcing it to get further away from Tao.

Sayaka glanced towards the fallen catgirl. "Tao, are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah..." Tao whimpered slightly as she got up, paw still to her shoulder. "Thanks, Fishy Lady. You're a really good person meow."

"No problem Tao," Sayaka replied, happy for the compliment. "Just be careful, all right?"

Suddenly, Tao tensed up. "Get ready, Fishy Lady! Squiggly looks mad neow!"

Turning around, Sayaka tensed as well. The blob seemed to be shaking as it looked at them, quivering in some sort of rage.

"Y.. .re ann..i..g. You ..ve Azure, but al.. some...ng . Wh..t is it? What is it?"

Sayaka got ready to attack, as did Tao next to her from the low growling coming from her throat. However, angry it may have been, the blob didn't press its luck, immediately sinking down into a puddle of sorts and scurrying off. They didn't stop watching it until it sank out of sight behind some metal pillars.

Sayaka let out a relieved sigh, dispelling her sword with a thought she looked down at herself. She wasn't truly hurt, save from around her midsection where Squiggly had grabbed her and a few aches all over when it had slammed her. However, she suddenly felt a sense of dizziness overcome her, and it was only just barely did she avoid falling to her knees, panting hard.

'I guess...that energy blast took more out of me than I thought,' she figured as another wave of nausea went through her. 'Probably...probably shouldn't use that too much in the future.'

Luckily, the feeling passed and didn't return, though she still felt a little weak. She looked back over at Tao, wincing at the sight of her shoulder.

"Tao, let me take a look at that."

Tao seemed to slink back like a scared cat. "No, Tao's fine! I'm not hurt..."

"Tao," Sayaka repeated, this time her voice firm yet not too harsh. "Let me see. I'm not gonna hurt you."

Tao whimpered for a moment, but complied, showing her bleeding shoulder. It wasn't too serious, not too deep from the looks of it, but it was also long (going from her shoulder all the way down her right arm to the elbow) and a little jagged due to the implement used. Sayaka clicked her tongue, a little queasy at the sight. Yes, she herself had been dealt worse, but she had got them while not quite in the best state of mind and they always healed quickly enough.

"Is...is it bad?" Tao asked her. Sayaka was struck by how familiar her voice sounded. She hadn't noticed it earlier with her being all chipper, but right now it kind of reminded her of-

An image of a certain shield-wearing Mahou Shoujo flashed through her mind...though for some reason she was wearing the very same cat hoodie that Tao was wearing now. The image was so ridiculous that Sayaka forgot her usual ire at thinking about said Mahou Shoujo and had to resist the urge to laugh.

"It should be fine," Sayaka told her, not allowing said merriment to show (just barely) on her face or voice. "Let's just get you to the village where Ragna is. Here, let me..."

Sayaka put her arm around Taokaka's uninjured side and, despite her weakened condition, managed to heft her up, to which the catgirl didn't try to fight. She then gave the battleground a once-over glance, from the still stinking pieces of goop and corroded swords to the scar in the earth where her energy blast (she would have to give that move a name sometime, along with her glowing sword trick) and Ragna's body-

The Mahou Shoujo blinked and looked back, and lo and behold, there was Ragna, still laying where they had left him. "Tao...why is Ragna still there?"

She looked over to where he was. "Because...that's where we left him meow?"

"You didn't take him to the village?"

"Umm...nope?"

Sayaka stared at her for a long moment. "Then where were you when I was getting attacked?"

Tao had the decency to look a little embarrassed. "...I was watching the fight?"

She resisted the urge to clonk the catgirl over the head, not wanting to hurt her anymore than she already was. But it tempted her, oh boy did it tempt her.

"Guess I'm carrying both of you then..."

Tao looked like she was trying to remember something, then suddenly blinked with a surprised gasp. "Oh! Fishy Lady, why don't you just use that glowy circle thingy from earlier? That way, Tao and Good Guy will be all patched up and we can carry him together!"

Sayaka blinked at the catgirl's words. Yes, she had healing magic, but she had only ever really used it on herself. She had no idea if she could even heal others with it, or whether or not their bodies would accept the foreign magic into their systems. Not to mention the fact that she had used plenty of magic already today and she had no idea of the condition of Soul Gem.

At the same time, there was no way she could get both of them to the village by herself, and she had no idea how long Ragna could stay like he was. He needed attention now, and Tao's shoulder could very well get infected from that black goop.

"Well..." Sayaka started, "...alright, I'll give it a shot." 'After all, it's just healing magic. What could go wrong?'

She immediately hoped that wasn't a big signal for something bad to happen, and concentrated. She had only ever used the regeneration circle under herself, so she figured that it could heal anyone within it. Pointing her finger, she created a circle under Tao, and then under Ragna.

Tao seemed to flinch for a moment, then relaxed as the circle did its work, her wound glowing a faint blue as it healed over. Something similar happened to Ragna, the pained scowl and clenched look on his face slowly vanishing like he was entering a peaceful slumber. The circles played their calming melody as they tended to the warriors' wounds.

"So nice..." Tao mumbled to herself sleepily as the melody finished moments later, the circles vanishing as their work was complete. Sayaka looked over at both of them, seeing smooth and unblemished skin on Tao's shoulder and Ragna stomach like they were never injured in the first place. The only signs they had been hurt were the dried blood on and tears in their clothes, things that could be easily taken care of.

Sayaka took a deep breath when she finished, a small smile on her face at the fact that she had succeeded. "Good. Now that that's-"

Suddenly, she stumbled, a deep pounding in her head and shortness of breath forcing her to her knees.

"Fishy Lady, what's wrong?" she heard Tao say faintly, feeling her arms wrap around her body. "Why do you look so tired meow?"

"I..." Sayaka mumbled, but couldn't say anything else. She had never felt so exhausted in her life, not even when she had overused her magic before.

"Tao!" she heard someone yell from farther away. "What happened?"

"Tora!" Tao yelled back. "Help! Good Guy and Fishy Lady need help neow!"

Blackness seeped into the edge of Sayaka's vision and quickly spread. She was vaguely aware of someone keeping her from falling on her face, but she couldn't tell if it was Tao or someone else.

"It's alright miss," she heard a calm voice, much more mature than Tao's, assure her. "Don't worry about a thing."

'Worry?' Sayaka thought to herself as she faded. 'Lady, I've got plenty of things to worry about...'

Suddenly, she heard a strange chuckle, and a voice eerily similar to her's rang out through her skull. **"****Oh, you don't have the half of it, 'Hero'."**

Before Sayaka could question who said that, or rather, if anyone had said really said that or it was just her deluded mind, unconsciousness finally took her.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Kagutsuchi Ports (Nightfall)<strong>_

Noel Vermillion was not having a good time. First she had been nearly killed by a silver-haired version of her that could apparently summon swords, saved a wanted criminal and traveled with him before being told to leave him alone, and was now facing down a delusional old friend of hers from the NOL Academy that now wanted to kill her with his robot doll, and this was after she somehow saw memories of him in the past, screaming over the body of his sister who was somehow connected with said doll.

Now she was standing over said friend's unconscious form, looking down at him while his doll was slumped over inactive, Bolverk's influence leaving her mind as the danger passed. Once it did, she quickly became horrified by what she had done.

"Ca...Carl!" she shouted, quickly kneeling down to grab him. "Carl, I-I'm so sorry!" Placing her hand over his heart, she breathed a sigh of relief at the fact he was still breathing and she could feel his heartbeat. 'Thank goodness!'

She hissed suddenly as her shoulder ached, blood dripping from where Nirvana had managed to slice her. "Wh-What on Earth happened?" she asked aloud. "To Carl...and to me?"

She then shook her head. "It doesn't matter right now," she decided. "I've got to do something, but..."

She bit her lip as she then looked up, her gaze resting on the inactive doll. Even if she had been the one attacked, she still felt that she needed to take responsibility for her old friend.

'It's...it's not going to move again, is it?' she wondered as she stared at it. After a second or two of nothing happening, she concluded it was safe to try and move Carl. 'I've got to get him to a clinic somewhere...'

"Master Carl!"

"Eep!" Noel squeaked as she looked up, seeing a tall man in green ninja garb suddenly drop down in front of her. "Who...who are you?"

"That is what I should ask, villain!" he replied, jabbing a finger at her. "I was attempting to take young Master Carl to a clinic for treatment before he escaped me, and now I find him bleeding even more grievously in your hands! To strike an injured child without remorse, have you no shame, evildoer?!"

"Wh-What?" Noel replied. "N-No! You have it wrong...I was just trying to..."

"Enough of your lies!" he shouted back, not even listening to her. "I know better than any man that a duel is a duel, but he was still injured and but a child-a CHILD!"

"Ah... U-Um..." Noel tried to say, but the warrior would hear none of it.

"Do not attempt to deceive me! Master Carl, be strong! I, Bang Shishigami, international ninja of love and justice, shall avenge you right here and now!"

'What should I do?' Noel thought desperately. 'This man's clearly misunderstood what's happened here...maybe if I try a little harder...'

"P-Please, just listen to me!" she quickly called out before he could attempt to attack. "I'm actually an acquaintance of Carl and...umm...we went to the same military academy together..."

"Hah! You expect me to believe such a poorly-constructed lie?" the ninja barked, "Clearly you are as evil as you are transparent! I believe what I see with my own two eyes, and what do I see? Master Carl, injured on the ground even more than before, and in front of him? A Librarium soldier with pistols drawn! For me, the truth is as clear as the sky on a clear day!"

"I-I'm telling the truth!" she tried to reason with him. "Did Carl ever talk about a 'Miss Noel'? That's me! My name is Noel Vermillion!"

For a moment, the warrior seemed to pause. Noel felt a surge of hope at the sight.

"...He may...have mentioned something like it...once..." the ninja admitted, then suddenly reassumed his stance. "However! That still does not change the facts in front of me! You attacked young Carl, and now he's even more injured than before! If you are truly a friend of Master Carl as you claim, then why did you strike him down?!"

Noel felt her hopes withered and die. "I-I...that's what I'm trying to tell you! He-"

"Bah! Your hesitance says it all!" The warrior declared. "Many lose their nerve when facing Bang Shishigami!"

"L-Look, just...I...I don't even know what exactly went on here!"

It was a true enough statement, but this Bang character took it in the entirely wrong way.

"Ah-ha! So now you try to play dumb, eh? Well, it won't work! I am Bang Shishigami, a ninja among ninja! Your desperate efforts to poison my mind will not work!"

'How come it feels like I'm talking to a wall?!' she thought to herself in growing annoyance, something unbecoming of her, but this man was driving her to the brink of patience. 'We could have been done by this point and taken Carl to a hospital!'

Bang noticed her annoyed look. "Ah, so at last you are through playing games, eh? Very well, I shall show you the power of the hammer of justice!"

She growled. "Oh, enough of this!" she snapped, raising her twin pistols Bolverk once more to a battle stance. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to calm down...the hard way!"

Why did the universe have to be so darn unfair?

**"Optic Barrel!" **she shouted, firing a blast from her pistol. Bang, unprepared for the sudden strike, threw up his arms on instinct, his gauntlets defending him but also forcing him back from the force behind it.

"Very well!" he shouted, rushing forward. "Let us begin!"

He closed the distance, jabbing at with her his fists twice before swinging his leg. Noel managed to defend against the punches, quickly bringing the butt of her gun to bear against his leg. However, the force of his blow managed to force her back, allowing Bang to capitalize on it with two swift punches that opened her guard.

"Take this!" he shouted, fire surrounding both his fists to form what looked like twin lion heads. **"Pulverising fist!"**

His blows connected, sending Noel further back with a groan of pain. However, the NOL soldier recovered quickly, aiming her gun once again.

**"Optic Barrel!"**

Once again, Bang managed to block it. 'Ha! Such a weak offensive will do her no good against the likes of me - Huh?'

Noel had rushed forward to close the distance, aiming below his guard at his feet with her pistols. She fired, breaking his balance. Now it was she on the offensive, jabbing him twice with her silver pistols before firing directly into his chest.

Bang expected to feel a sharp pain before his life ended, but instead he felt more like what felt like an extremely powerful punch, followed up by another as she pointed her second pistol and fired point-blank again. She then threw one of her guns that twirled like a boomerang, striking at him multiple times before she jammed her other gun barrel into his chest again.

**"Bloom Trigger!" **she shouted before firing a much stronger blast than before, knocking him away from her in a flash of fire and smoke.

"Gah!" he yelled in pain as he went flying back, but another part of his mind was aware of the fact that the strike wasn't fatal. 'But why? Why didn't she shoot to kill? It cannot be simply because her shots are non-lethal...'

He managed to slide to his feet, hand to his chest as he looked at her, noting her stance. She was ready to continue, but it was not that of a one truly committed to winning. Instead of capitalizing on his weakness, she seemed to be waiting for him to make the first move, panting slowly from where his attacks had struck. 'Her stance is not of one who wishes to fight...'

His eyes glanced over to the bleeding slash on her bare shoulder, then towards Nirvana. Was this young girl telling the truth?

"You..." he started. "I cannot sense any killing intent from you...What are you, really?"

Noel looked at him incredulously. "Please..." she panted. "Would you at least TRY to listen? I wasn't the one who hurt Carl like that. I was actually trying to help him when his doll suddenly attacked me and I...! So...I um..." She stopped, realizing what she was about to say. "Anyway" she quickly added, hoping that he didn't catch that last part, "I'm not the one at fault!"

Bang was silent for a moment. "I see. I see!" he said slowly, then nodded his head, voice growing with increasing conviction. "Yes, yes, as I suspected all along! You have the aura of one of Ikaruga's legendarily perfect women! I knew you could not be at fault! Dah ha ha ha!"

Noel groaned, relieved that the big lug had finally gotten it through his head. "Don't 'Dah ha ha ha!' me! Geez... That's what I was trying to tell you all along..."

The ninja ignored her, still chuckling to himself. "Well, now that your true identity has been revealed, this fight is meaningless! I must take Master Carl to the infirmary as soon as possible!"

Noel blinked, remembering why this whole thing had gotten started. 'Oh no, Carl!' Quickly, she went back to the boy, breathing a sigh of relief to see his condition had not worsened during the scuffle. She turned back to Bang and offered him a smile. "Yes, that would be wise. I was just about to take him myself."

The ninja blinked. "Oh...well, huh..." he said slowly, as if just realizing that by his actions he might have risked the boy's life. "Yes. I will be... going to the clinic now, but... Would you like to accompany us? That shoulder wound looks rather painful."

Noel blinked. The man seemed almost...embarrassed now. 'Probably just figuring out how badly he screwed up,' a darker and still annoyed part of her mind thought.

She shook her head. "No... I'm afraid I have things that need to be taken care, so... Would it be okay to leave Carl in your care? I'll be fine."

Bang nodded. "You can leave it to me. I will ensure that Master Carl gets the utmost treatment." He walked by her to take up Carl's doll over one shoulder and Carl over the other gently. Before he did though, he paused and dug into his pocket, pulling out a small box and holding it out to her. "If it means anything to you, take this. A hero such as myself must always remember to carry a box of bandages for injuries!"

Noel slowly took the box and looked inside, her eyes widening as as she saw a roll of bandages and a small vial of something, likely alcohol or a tonic.

"Are-Are you sure you don't-"

"Nonsense!" he replied with a laugh. "As a man, it would be unbecoming of me to let a young lady such as yourself simply go without some form of treatment! Besides, I'm not injured enough that I require it. Consider it my penance for misunderstanding what happened here!"

"Th-Thank you," she replied as she clenched the box, surprised by the surprisingly gentleman attitude he had adopted. "And take care, Mr. Bang."

With that, the ninja left with his charge. Noel watched them go for a moment, then placed a hand to her head, trying to block out the images she had seen when she had touched Carl.

_"Sis? Sis?! Where are you?! What did Father do to you?! Sis! NOOOOOO!"_

She shuddered. 'Those were definitely Carl's...but how? I...what's happening to me? I don't...I just don't understand!'

Unfortunately, the empty docks offered the young officer no answers.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Kagutsuchi Central<strong>_

Iron Tager looked about where he was, nodding his head in satisfaction. It had taken some doing, including sneaking about at night as well as helping a member of the Kaka clan, but he had made it into the city. Now he just had to begin his mission.

'Well well, Kagutsuchi...you really haven't changed since we last met like this,' Tager thought to himself as he glanced around. 'Granted, our last meeting was only a few days ago, but still...'

Opening his communications channel, he called up Kokonoe. "Kokonoe, do you read me? I'm inside Kagutsuchi."

_"Yeah, I can hear you loud and clear, Tager," _came Kokonoe's voice over the connection. _"Excellent. No problems?"_

"Aside from serving escort to an surprisingly clever and rational Kaka and her charge who just so happened to be heading in the same direction near the drop-off point, nothing."

_"The Kaka Clan? Eh, whatever."_

"If there's nothing else, I'll begin my search for Noel Vermillion and that other Azure."

_"Yeah. OK, just for now, use the scanners to find some of the Azure's residual energy. I'm preeeetty sure Noel's gonna be emitting energy on about the same wavelength, as should the other one."_

"Got it."

_"Ah...and...uh, just one other thing about the scanner..."_

"Yes?"

_"Well, this thing has, ah, no way of telling the difference between Noel, the other Azure, or Ragna the Bloodedge... Soooo you might run into a little trouble. Just a heads-up."_

"I'll be careful," Tager assured her. "For now, I'll start with the NOL building and see if I can pick anything up."

_"Fine. Good. Whatever. Just keep in mind that area's under the-" _Suddenly, an alarm rang out over the communication relay.

"What is it?" Tager asked with some concern.

_"Dammit. Hold on a second...No, it doesn't matter you idiot! Shutdown number 18 through 32! Hell, shut them all down now!" _Kokonoe yelled over the mic, her attention on someone other than Tager. _"...Yes, of course I mean **completely** you retard! Goddamnit people!"_

"Kokonoe, what's going on?" Tager asked over the com, his own apprehension showing as he tried to get her attention. "Hey, Kokonoe!"

_"...The guards?!" _Kokonoe yelled explosively, apparently in response to some poor schmuck's idiotic question. _"Are you out of your microscopic mind? You might as well drop them in an oversized meatgrinder for all the good it'll do us! I'm sorry, but can you not comprehend that this son of a bitch could blow us all sky-high if he so much as SNEEZES?! ...Yeah, I know, just...just throw the idiot outside... Yes, I mean RIGHT NOW!"_

Kokonoe seemed to at last realize Tager was still listening. _"Sorry about that. There's been a few, ah, complications."_

"I can guess..." Tager replied. There were only two persons to whom Kokonoe could be referring to right now, and only one of them was in any position of potentially getting out through outside intervention. No one in their right mind would ever release the Mad Dog, after all._  
><em>

_"Hakumen's escaped."_

"I thought so."

_"Goddammit...he's probably heading to Kagutsuchi for the Azure too. There's no other place he would go... Look, I'm adding to your mission parameters. I don't care what you have to do. Find Hakumen, and when you do, kill him. I want him GONE."_

"No intervention on your part?" Tager asked. Kokonoe had been able to intervene against the White Susanoo before, teleporting him away before he could get too involved in whatever he was doing.

_"I...I don't think so. I'm about 90% sure I can smell Rachel's blood-soaked hand in on this."_

Ah, that would explain it. "I see...as you wish. Can I be expecting backup?"

Kokonoe's voice seemed to get almost smug again, as if glad he had mentioned that. _"Oh, don't worry. My little project will heading there so enough. It'll be handling the detainment of that other Azure if you haven't found it already. Anything else?"_

There _was_ one last thing Tager wanted to ask about, a bit more personal to the professor than anything else before this. "Yes. If I may be so bold...if I am to encounter Litchi or Arakune?"

Dead silence over the mic. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew the line was still open or the faintest sound of breath on the other end, he would have swore Kokonoe had hung up.

_"...Just...just use your best judgement...on both accounts."_

"Roger." He knew there would be no more conversing on this subject by her tone. "Starting mission."

* * *

><p><strong>And with that, Chapter Three comes to a close. I hoped you guys liked it. So, Sayaka's coming a little more into her powers, especially regarding the Azure, Tao's got a new friend and nickname, Hakumen's out, Noel's realizing the extent of her new abilities, and Tager's starting his mission! Some people might be wondering where Jin, Tsubaki and Makoto are, but they'll appear; the time of their paths to cross is not quite yet.<strong>

**(Fun Fact: Homura and Taokaka share the same Japanese voice actress: Chiwa Saito! Expect small references like this throughout as Sayaka meets people with the same voices (Japanese or English) as people she knows!)**

**Anyways, next chapter comes Kyoko...no wait, I mean the Boobie-er, Litchi! And Ragna wakes up!**

**Review, favorite and follow people! Tell me what you thought!**


	4. Rest and Discovery

**Hello everybody! This is X the Reaper, bringing you the next installment of Mahou Shoujo of the Continuum Shift! Sheesh, these chapters just keep getting longer! I know I've got to tone it down a little, but my darn muse...**

**Anyways, today, Sayaka gets to encounter a somewhat-familiar face!**

**Disclaimer: BlazBlue and Puella Magi Madoka Magica are property of Gen Urobuchi and Arc System Works respectively and to any other parties. X the Reaper owns nothing save the story.**

**Alright, let's go!**

* * *

><p><strong><em>?<em>**

_"Rag...na..."_

_Ragna blinked at the sound of his name. Looking around, his eyebrows narrowed in confusion. He was sitting in a lighted meadow, the noon sun just overhead and shining down. He could hear the faint sound of birdsong around him, carried by the wind that rustled through his air. _

_"Huh?" he mumbled, raising a hand to his face and rubbing it, feeling strangely tired, eyes shut as he tried to force the sleep out of them. "What's...Who said that?"_

_"Ragna!"_

_He stopped, his eyes snapping open as his mind registered the voice. It couldn't be, but..._

_"Saya?" he muttered quietly, taking a better look around. He was certain he had heard her voice, but he couldn't see her anywhere. He tried sitting up, despite his tired muscles saying no, and got to his feet. He paused as he felt grass beneath his feet, only to look down and see that, yes, he was shoeless._

_"When did that happen?" he asked himself. His mind felt like it was moving through molasses, struggling and failing to grasp information just out of reach. There was something he was missing. "How...how did I get here? I...remember fighting and then a girl...what? Argh!"_

_He put a hand to his head, trying to quell the powerful headache building up the more he thought. "D-Damn it..."_

_"Ragna!"_

_He stopped, looking upward. "Saya..." he muttered, then called out. "Saya?"_

_"Ragna! Help!"_

_It was definitely coming from close by. His first instincts were to start running, but something held him back._

_'No...wait a minute...dammit, this doesn't make any sense! Why am I-'_

_"Brother please! Help!"_

_His eyes widened and he pushed aside those thoughts. His brotherly instincts awakened, he rushed towards where he could hear the voice coming from. "Saya! Hold on, I'm coming!"_

_"Ragna, hurry!" Saya's voice called back, giving him the strength to keep going. She sounded desperate, scared even. He wasn't going to let anything happen to her._

_"Saya! Where are you?!"_

_"Over here! Brother, please hurry!"_

_He ran like a demon possessed, eventually catching sight of two people in the distance. As he got closer, he saw one of them was Saya, wearing her white dress and seemingly unconscious on the ground. The other was a man, tall and wearing a black suit and hat._

_Suddenly, just as he got close enough to call out to her, the man turned around. And Ragna felt himself stop and stare in horror._

_"Heeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy Raggy!" the green-haired man greeted him with a smile. "How've ya been?"_

_That smile...that voice and face...it couldn't be..._

_"Oh, but it is, little Raggy!" the man replied as if he could hear his thoughts. He opened his eyes slightly, golden snake eyes staring into his own with wicked mirth and sadistic glee. "C'mon, at least give me a smile or something. That's what friends do, right?"_

_"You..." Ragna replied, his horror being replaced by something far stronger and deadlier. Hate. "You bastard!"_

_The man put a hand to his chest. "Oh Ragna, I'm hurt!" he said with mock shock. "Is that anyway to treat an old friend?"_

_"Just...just shut up!" Ragna yelled back, throwing up his right arm. "Releasing Restriction 666...Dimensional..."_

_He stopped and stared. He wasn't staring at the black arm that had been grafted in place of his old one, no, he was looking at the same white fleshed arm that he had for almost a decade of life. Looking down, he realized he wasn't even wearing his jacket or sword. No, it was like time had wound back to show him when he was still that defenseless little kid._

_"No..." he muttered, only now realizing his voice had even changed to become younger. "No, no, no...this is a dream. A very bad dream!"_

_He was interrupted by mocking laughter. Looking back up he saw the man grinning wickedly as he walked forward, a green and black chain ending in a snake head appearing around him._

_"Well Raggy, you'd better wake up! Dream or not, this is still gonna hurt!"_

_He made a sweeping motion and the chain rocketed forward, mouth wide open to bite into the helpless boy. Ragna threw up his arms and-_

Ragna's eyes snapped open and he quickly sat up, a wordless shout escaping his lips as-

_BONK!_

"OWWW!"

"GAH!"

Ragna went right back down on his back, hand to his head as he tried to get his bearings. "What the...where the hell am I?!" he shouted/asked.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his left shoulder. "Please relax," a voice said softly, yet also firmly. "Your wounds may have been healed, but you still need to-"

Ragna turned his head. "Look lady, I don't want to be rude, but could you just tell where I-"

He stopped when he got a good look at the person in front of him. She was a young woman with dark-brown skin and fire-colored hair, but he couldn't tell much more due to the grey hood and jacket she was wearing that covered most of her body, as well as the black mask-like face with a toothy grin and red eyes. However, what caught his attention most were the pair of cat ears on her head and the tiger-striped tail of grey and yellow that twitched behind her.

"T-Tao?" he suddenly asked, remembering a similar-looking Kaka warrior he once met. The Kaka in front of him chuckled slightly.

"Not quite," she replied, her voice identical to the one he had just heard. "I'm a friend of hers, Torakaka. As for Tao...well..."

"Ooowwww..."

Looking in front of him, he saw the familiar blond braids and beige-colored hoodie of the Kaka he must have hit, rubbing her head slowly.

"That hurt, Good Guy!" Tao, as he now realized this was Tao, complained. "Why'd you sit up so fast?"

"Uh, sorry about that Tao," Ragna apologized, feeling just a little bad about that. "I just-argh!"

He placed a hand to his stomach area, wincing as a spike of pain went through him. He felt the pressure on his left shoulder increased just slightly, causing him to look back into the concerned eyes of Torakaka.

"Please," she told him again, "just relax. Your wounds may have healed, but magical healing like this doesn't just take away the fatigue and pain like...well, magic. Your body still needs to recover on its own time."

'Why don't you mind your own business?' was the first thought that came to Ragna's mind, but he pushed it aside, more concerned with that last bit he had said. "Wait...magic?"

Tao nodded her head like an excited kid...which in a sense she was. "Yeah! Fishy Lady made that cool green circle thingy that shut you back up! Then she did the same thing to Tao when she got hurt by Squiggly meow!"

'Fishy...Lady...?' Ragna thought to himself in confusion. 'Why does that seem familiar-!'

"Wait," Ragna interrupted her. "Did she have a tail and dressed funny?"

Tao nodded. "Yeah! She had a fish tail and swords!" she replied, then suddenly got a faraway look in her eyes. "And speaking of fishes..." she continued slowly, her stomach starting to rumble, "Tao hasn't eaten the whole day!"

'Well, that sounds about right,' Ragna thought to himself, then looked over at Tora, figuring she was the saner of the two to talk to. "Is she serious?"

Tora shrugged. "Well, I'm not entirely certain if it was indeed 'magic', but its clear whatever happened to either you or Tao has been completely healed over...well, mostly."

Another twinge of pain flashed through Ragna's gut. "I can see why," he grunted.

"A day or two's rest and you'll be better than fine," Tora replied. "Considering the amount of blood that was on your coat and shirt, I'd say that's a small price to pay.

Ragna blinked and looked down. Surprise, surprise, he was wearing only his pants and a white T-shirt. Reaching down, he lifted the shirt to see that, to his surprise, there were no bandages around his stab area. Hell, there wasn't even a scar, and for an attack coming from a Nox Nyctores, that was impressive.

"Damn," he whistled. "If that ain't magic, must have been one hell of a healing ars magus."

"Maybe so," Tora agreed, "but considering the girl in question's currently unconscious, we can't answer that question."

Ragna felt a twinge of concern. After all, the girl had saved his ass from that kid and his puppet, and she healed his wounds on top of that. He'd have to be heartless not to feel anything. "Is she alright?"

"The good doctor's checking up on her right now," Tora replied, then looked towards Tao. "As a matter of fact, Tao, why don't you go and see how she's doing?"

Tao grinned and snapped to attention. "Rrrrright! The Boobie Lady might need help and Fishy Lady might be awake neow!" Before she took off, she paused as if remembering something and gave Ragna the stink eye. "You sure you're gonna be alright, Good Guy?"

Ragna chuckled. He didn't usually do that around others, but Tao's nature made it kind of hard not to, annoyingness aside. "I'll be fine, Tao. Go check up on her, for me alright?"

Tao grinned. "Okay Good Guy! Get well soon!"

With that, she bounded out of the building. The two of them watched him go, then Tora looked back at him. "I must say, I didn't quite expect the 'Grim Reaper' himself to be so agreeable to strangers."

Ragna scratched his head. "Well, what can I say? That old cat Jubei put in a good word for you guys, and Tao's a good cat-er, person. Call it a hunch."

Tora chuckled, then grew serious. "So then, Mr. Ragna the Bloodedge, what brings you down here to the Kaka village?"

Ragna stopped scratching. "Got careless against a vigilante and blacked out," he replied truthfully. "Everything after that's a blank 'til I woke up in here." His voice and face grew serious. "Trust me, I don't want to bring trouble here, so if you want me gone-"

"I don't mean it like that," Tora cut him off. "I've met Master Jubei myself and Tao's put in a good word for you on all accounts. Besides, few even know this place exists, and no one here's going to rat you out to the authorities. I guess you could call this place a sanctuary, and that comes from the village head herself."

Ragna relaxed slightly. "...Thanks, I guess..." he replied slowly, then glanced around. "Guess I'm just a little nervous."

Tora chuckled again. "Well, you _are _the most wanted criminal in the history of the planet. I suppose being in a place with a lot of people would leave you a little uncomfortable."_  
><em>

Ragna snorted, then laid back down. "How long have I've been out?" he asked.

"It's been about two hours since we brought you and your rescuer in," she replied. "Of the two of you, she was actually in the worst condition, cold and pale, along with a short breath. We were actually worried she wouldn't make it for a little bit."

Ragna felt an uncomfortable rumble in his stomach at that. "How is she now?" he asked slowly. "She any better?"

Tora's face took on a more emphatic look. "Last I checked, her breathing was normal and her temperature's better, but she's still asleep. Like I said, the doctor's been checking on her for awhile. Whatever that girl did to you left very little for the doctor to mend and check, so she's spent most of her time with her."

Ragna looked away for a moment, lost in thought. "...That's good I guess," he finally said, the gut feeling he had settling down.

Tora sighed. "You know, if you're worried, you could always pay her a visit. She's only two houses down after all."

"...Maybe when she wakes up," he replied, putting his arm over his eyes and shifting his position. He thought back to how she had jumped in front of him, protecting him from that puppeteer kid despite probably having no idea who he really was. And now she was apparently hurt and needed medical attention because of him.

That bothered him more than he admitted. He didn't like people getting hurt because him especially if he didn't ask for it, and the fact that she had only collapsed after healing him made him even more guilty.

'Damn it, why do people keep getting involved in my shit?' he wondered to himself. 'I've got enough problems without others getting in the way...still, I hope she's alright...'

"Speaking of which," Tora suddenly said, distracting Ragna from his thinking. "What was going on just a few minutes ago? One minute you were sleeping peacefully, and the next you started sweating and shivering like you came down with a fever."

Ragna looked away. "Just a nightmare, and if you don't mind, it's none of your business."

Tora didn't look happy about that, but she didn't press it. "Well...as long as you-"

"GOOD GUY! TORAKAKA!"

Ragna's and Tora's heads snapped back towards the hut entrance, seeing an excited Tao in the entrance. "Fishy Lady's awake! Come on!"

Tora looked back at him, holding out one of her hands. "Guess you'll get your chance now."

Ragna sighed as he slowly moved the covers away, reaching to grab her offered arm. "Guess so."

* * *

><p><em><strong>? (Slightly Earlier)<strong>_

_Sayaka's eyes flew open to see bright and dark swirling colors above herself, herself sprawled on the 'floor' of the place, wherever that was. Her eyelids fluttered for a few moments before she finally had the strength to sit up, hand rising to her eyes as she rubbed them to remove the blurriness._

_'What the...' she wondered to herself. 'Where am I? Last thing I remember was...healing Ragna and Tao, but then I-'_

_Her thoughts terminated as her eyesight cleared enough to make out her surroundings, and they were definitely not where she remembered. Instead of a field with some traces of fading sunlight breaking through onto the grass, she was instead in a majorly white space, with a black and white checker pattern covering the ground and what seemed like a rainbow of light and dark colors flowing above her in a maddening dance. Like chains, train tracks were everywhere, criss-crossing the entire area but especially towards the middle. Strangely, said tracks actually looked like they were made of musical notes and stanzas, forming a maddening melody that spiraled into chaos as they neared the center._

_"Where...am I?" Sayaka asked to no one in particular. Her voice echoed throughout the confines of the abnormal place. Hesitantly, she tried taking a step. The sound echoed like her voice, but instead of the expected stomp, it sounded as a musical note, a very high-pitched one at that._

_She narrowed her eyes towards the center of the place, noticing that was where most of the stuff seemed to collect, and tried to see if she could make out anything. For a moment, she thought she caught a glimpse of an open concert hall with something blue on the stage, but it seemed to shimmer like a mirage._

**"Don't bother."**

_Sayaka whirled around at the voice, which was like a scream in the silence, but no one greeted her gaze. "Who's there?" she asked back, her own echoes joining the fading ones of the previous. "Where are you?"_

**"Oh, could we _get _anymore cliche?"**_ the voice asked back with a sarcastic sigh, the echoing effect making it impossible to know where the source was. _**"Next thing you know, you'll be asking where _you're_ supposed to be...which I'm not saying by the way."**

_Sayaka shut up, not wanting to give it the satisfaction of knowing was exactly what she was about to ask. Instead, she looked around, trying to find some trace of moment towards her mysterious partner._

_'Is this...a Witch's labyrinth?' she wondered to herself. 'It definitely looks and feels like it...but that can't be it...'_

_How could she have gotten inside of it in the first place? Besides, Witches didn't talk...well, talk so one could understand them at least._

**"Oh bra-_vo_!" **_the voice said mockingly as she had spoken aloud,_ **"You've solved the puzzle...or part of it, at least. Yes, you're in a Witch's labyrinth...and also not."**

_'The hell's that supposed to mean?' she wondered to herself even as she recoiled from the shock of realizing this Witch had somehow heard her thoughts._

**"It's a riddle, Sherlock," **_the voice answered her, confirming that she wasn't dreaming...in theory._ **"Figure it out."**

_"Oh shut up," she muttered, taking a few steps forwards in some vain hope she could potentially find the speaker if she moved. "If you're not gonna show yourself or saying something useful, be quiet or whatever."_

**"Hmm...not a bad idea..."**_ the voice agreed. _**"But it's just kinda pathetic watching you struggle to figure things out in silence, you know? I'd like to spruce things up a little bit."**

_"Pretty damn chatty, for a Witch," she replied darkly, deciding she might as well start making her way towards the center. Maybe the Witch had made camp there._

**"I try to provide some fun stuff. But hey, this line of thinking's a two-way street you know. I need some decent feedback to make it work out." **_The voice grew silent for a short time as Sayaka walked towards the center without answering, then restarted the conversation with,_ **"But for reals, don't bother going there."**

_Sayaka didn't pay the voice any heed, continuing to walk. More and more, the chaos seemed to solidify into that concert hall she saw earlier, but the orb of light she had glimpsed was still murky and discolored._

**"I'm not lying. You're not ready to understand what's over there yet. It could very well destroy you."**

_Sayaka's steps slowed, but she didn't stop. Now she could definitely see concert hall, but the orb on the stage was as unreadable as before. She prepared to take another step but hesitated for a moment, something eerie about the glow holding her back. It seemed almost...alive, but not like 'thinking' alive. Almost...more like the heartbeat of some powerful creature that could destroy her in an instant._

_"Then what is it?" Sayaka found herself asking out loud. Something about it was weird...like it was something she knew about but only in a dream, or maybe something she had seen with her own eyes, but had somehow forgotten existed 'til now. "What's so important about it?"_

**"No idea."**

_Sayaka blinked, finally fully stopping her walk towards it as the Witch's words caught up to her._

_"...Bullshit," she replied, the first word that came to mind. "This is your labyrinth, isn't it? If you made it, then you should know what it is!" _

**"It's my labyrinth alright, but that wasn't here before,"** _the Witch answered her simply._ **"I didn't make it, so I've got no clue...though I feel like I should...but I do know that it's dangerous, whatever it is."**

_"How?"_

_A snort._ **"The same way you know, Sayaka Miki."**

_Sayaka felt as if her world just stopped. She blinked once, twice, trying to come to terms with what unseen companion had just said._

_Her name. She had never given her name, yet this Witch knew it._

_"Who...who are you, really?" Sayaka asked, her voice growing more panicked as she spoke. "How...how did you know my name?"_

_A tired sigh, seemingly from right next to her and yet far away at the same time like an echo._

**"Wow, kind of slow on the uptake, aren't you?"** _the voice asked, almost amused._** "But I guess that was always a failing of ours. Alright then...guess I might as well get this out of the way..."**

_'Ours?' Sayaka wondered, but suddenly felt a weight on her shoulder, like someone just put a heavy hand on it. Quickly turning about, she caught sight of the perpetrator and-_

Sayaka's eyes snapped open, the vision leaving her hanging like a cliffhanger in an amazing story. She glanced about, realizing she was in some sort of wood, stone and metal building and lying in a bed facing the shut door. A single candle illuminated the room, casting shadows about the closed space.

Her observation was immediately followed by a groan of pain, the result of the sudden realization she ached all over, as well as something else she couldn't quite place at first.

A rumble in her stomach confirmed it for her. It was hunger and, as the feeling of her throat being like sandpaper further proved, thirst.

'Wait a minute...' Sayaka thought to herself as those feelings made themselves known, 'I thought I didn't need to-'

"Oh, are you awake now?"

Sayaka froze. That voice, warm and kind in tone, sounded hauntingly familiar. An image of a red-headed Mahou Shoujo with a similar colored outfit and eyes, carrying a spear over her shoulder and some pocky in her mouth flashed before her mind's eye.

'No, she couldn't be...' Sayaka thought to herself as her head snapped towards the voice's source, a few feet to her left as strands of hair fell in front of her face. 'But why would-'

"K-Kyoko?" she muttered weakly the name of her rival, her eyes coming to rest on the voice at last, positioned near the candle. "Why are you here..."

She trailed off. In front of her sitting on a stool was a beautiful young woman with pink eyes, black hair tied into a bun and wearing some sort of doctor uniform that Sayaka guessed was probably Chinese in origins, complete with long white sleeves, a yin and yang brooch ribbon, a red vest and a same-colored skirt dress that exposed her thighs, and gold trim along all of it. On her head was some sort of small panda hair pin with twin green leaves sticking out behind it, and she wore a pair of black rectangular glasses on her face. Next to her, several gleaming pieces of armor that Sayaka realized were her's laid on a desk with a pitcher of some sort of liquid.

Strangely enough, it was none of the above that tipped her off it wasn't Kyoko that was in front of her. No, that was reserved to the first thing she noticed upon turning her head.

'Wait a minute...Kyoko never had such a large rack.'

She resisted the urge to kick herself in the head at that thought. '_That's_ what I notice first?!' she screamed mentally. 'What the hell?!'

The woman, unaware of her thought processes, simply gave her a gentle smile. "I'm sorry miss, but I'm afraid I have no idea who this 'Kyoko' you speak of is. My name is Litchi Faye-Ling, and I'm your doctor. A pleasure."

Sayaka blinked for a few seconds. 'Whoa...definitely not Kyoko.' The red-haired girl probably would have just given her a gruff quip and then hit her over the head if she took too long to respond all while munching on some snack.

"Uh...thanks..." she replied slowly. "I'm Sayaka Miki. Nice to meet you too, Ms. Litchi." She looked around the room she was inside. "Where am I?"

Litchi seemed to flinch for a moment, but it was only in passing before it was gone without a trace.

"Well, you're currently resting in the Kaka Village after the residents brought you and a young man inside," she supplied helpfully (yet a little too quickly). "Apparently, you were the worse off one of the two, so most of the time I've spent here has been for watching over you."

Sayaka blinked, forgetting about her doctor's weird quirk just for a moment and ignoring her fast reply. She had been unconscious? But then how did she get in that Witch labyrinth?

'Was it just a dream?' she wondered, then shook her head. 'No, that felt way too real to be a dream...but...'

"Something wrong?" Litchi asked. "You look distressed."

Sayaka shook her head and temporarily dispelled those thoughts. "I'm fine," she lied. "Anyways, is he okay? The man, I mean."

The doctor seemed slightly put off by the sudden change in conversation, but answered truthfully. "He's fine," she replied. "Last I checked, he was resting peacefully."

Sayaka sighed in relief, lifting an arm to push some of her wayward hair out of her face. "That's good..." she muttered quietly to herself.

"That was rather brave of you."

Sayaka looked back over at Litchi. "Huh?"

"What you did," she clarified, bringing a hand to her face to adjust her glasses. "From what Tao told me, you willing fought a monster to protect both him and her and healed the worst of their injuries afterwards in spite of your own weakened condition. And you did it all despite the fact you apparently never met her until today and from the looks of things hadn't met that man 'till recently either."

Sayaka chuckled. "Hey, I was just doing what any decent person should have done."

"And for that, I must thank you," Litchi replied with a smile. "Tao's actually a bit of a student of mine. I'm glad to hear that she's alright."

Sayaka hummed in agreement. "...Though I wish she didn't give me such a weird nickname."

Litchi raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What does she call you?"

"...I don't want to talk about it."

"C'mon!" the doctor prodded, leaning forward slightly. "She has an embarrassing nickname for me too. I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours."

Sayaka wondered if it was worth the risk, then just shrugged. "She calls me...Fishy Lady."

Litchi blinked for a second, then her eyes widened when she got it. "Oh...so the tail..."

"Yeah," Sayaka replied. "So, I've spilled my guts. What's yours?"

Litchi smiled. "Take a guess for a second."

Sayaka glanced the doctor over for a second. She had two ideas of what it was, but decided to go with the safe option. "...Panda Lady?"

Litchi giggled and reached up towards her panda pin...which suddenly _moved_ and jumped into her hand. "You mean Lao Jiu?" she asked, cradling the small creature in her hands. Sayaka just stared bug-eyed, every instinct in her body screaming at her to hold it.

Litchi noticed her look and held him out. "If you'd like."

Sayaka needed no further prompting. She reached out with one hand and slowly patted the little panda's head, who responded by slowing leaning into her ministrations. "Wow, he's real," she said breathlessly.

"I found him by accident. Pandas are very rare these days, so I suppose it was a million-to-one chance, but it happened and he seemed to like being with me, so I kept him."

"I thought he was a pin."

"Most do," Litchi agreed. "As for your guess, it was good, but no. Any other ideas?"

Sayaka's eyes slowly drifted towards Litchi's chest. She quickly yanked them back up, but Litchi had caught the subtle moment and sighed. "No need to be embarrassed about it," she told her patient. "It's really the only other name that makes sense after all."

"So...Tao calls you-"

"BOOBIE LADY!"

Both women's heads snapped towards the opening to see Tao charge in. "Boobie Lady, Good Guy's awake! Is Fishy Lady awake? Because if she is, Good Guy wants to come and see her and-" the catgirl paused when she realized that Sayaka was looking at and then seemed to explode with energy. "Meow! Fishy Lady!"

She made as if to glomp the bed-ridden Sayaka, but Litchi spared her that unfortunate fate by quickly jumping in front of the catgirl. "Tao, I'm glad to see that you're happy Sayaka Miki is awake-"

"Hey, Fishy Lady!" Tao interjected, waving towards Sayaka. "How ya doing neow?"

Sayaka lifted her arm with surprising ease to wave back. "Hey to you too, Tao. Doing fine."

"...but could you be a dear and go tell Tora and Mr. Ragna that she's up then?" Litchi continued as if nothing happened. "I'm sure they want to see her too."

Tao paused and then nodded her head. "You're right, Boobie Lady!" Quickly turning to Sayaka, she waved again. "Hold on a second, Fishy Lady! Tao'll bring Good Guy and Torakaka in a second!"

With that, the catgirl ran back out, shutting the door behind her. The two women watched her go, and then Litchi looked back at Sayaka. "So, still feel embarrassed about Tao's name for you?"

Sayaka shook her head. "Nah, I think I'm good," she answered, then suddenly coughed. "Darn, my throat's dry."

Litchi nodded. "I'll get you some water then. Please, stay right there."

Sayaka nodded her thanks and the doctor got up to go to a pitcher that was on the table next to her. A glass was poured and the water given, which Sayaka, having found she had more than enough strength to sit up straight, immediately gulped down and felt instantly better about her throat.

"Thank you, Miss Litchi."

"No problem, Sayaka," she replied with a smile. "I'm happy to be of service." For a moment, Sayaka thought she saw a pained grimace flash across Litchi's face, but it was so fast she decided it was just a trick of the light.

Staring at that smile, Sayaka was once again stunned by the differences that Litchi and Kyoko had, despite having the same voice. "...You know, it's kind of scary," she admitted out loud, catching Litchi's attention. "Your voice is almost a dead-ringer for another girl I know, but you're almost nothing like her otherwise."

Litchi tilted her head, intrigued. "I take it the girl's name is that 'Kyoko' you mentioned earlier?"

Sayaka nodded. "Yeah. She has red clothes like you, but she also has red eyes and hair, and she's always eating something, usually sweets. She carries a spear that splits apart, and she's always so gruff, cranky, sarcastic and potty-mouthed. I think I've heard more swear words from her than any other person I know."

Litchi blinked. "Rather strong way to speak about your friend."

"I was thinking more like 'rivals'," Sayaka admitted. "...But 'very-battle-ready-friend' works too, I guess. She was actually kind of cool to hang around when she wasn't being an ass."

Suddenly, the last memory she had of Kyoko flittered through her mind and her mood sank. "...Long story short...well, we kind of parted ways under not so great terms. It was my fault, really. I wish I could take it back but...well, things keep getting in the way, I guess."

Litchi looked sympathetic. "I think I know what you mean. From the sound of it, she's very similar to someone close to me also."

Sayaka blinked. "Oh yeah?"

Litchi's voice and face took on a nostalgic tone. "Yeah...well, she was really my employer. She always worked me and my colleagues to the bone and was always ready with a sarcastic comment or just a foul-mouthed insult at our heritage if we screwed up...but she was also kind under that facade, giving us very real congratulations when we impressed her. I probably wouldn't be lying if I said working with and under her were some of the best years of my life."

Her tone grew sad. "But then we got into a big disagreement involving... a colleague," she continued (though the way she said that kind of clued Sayaka in that 'colleague' was something a little bit bigger in this context), "and I left rejecting her decision. We haven't spoken in years after that."

Sayaka felt empathy towards the doctor. It seemed like a sad way to break off a friendship. "What was her name?" Sayaka asked.

Here, Litchi seemed to hesitate. "...It was-"

They were interrupted by a knock outside. "Doctor Litchi," a female voice came from the other side. "Can you come out for a moment?"

Litchi looked back at Sayaka for a moment. "Think you handle things without me?" she asked.

Sayaka waved her hand. "Yeah, go on and see what the adults want," she answered. "I'm not going anywhere yet."

Litchi nodded her head and went towards the door, opening it. Sayaka caught a glimpse of another cat hood and white hair right behind it, but the door shut just as quickly. She could faintly hear muttering from behind it, but paid it no mind.

Instead, she flopped back down on the bed, rubbing her face, trying to put together everything that had happened to her recently. She had woken up with a new appearance and a tail, fell through a concrete floor, fought a monster-blob-reject alongside a catgirl, fired a massive beam of energy that hadn't felt like magic from her sword, collapsed from magical exhaustion, talked with one weird-as-hell dream-Witch and her creepy labyrinth, and was now lying in bed apparently none the worse for wear despite magical exhaustion being one of the number-one killers of Mahou Shoujo.

'Even weirder,' Sayaka thought to herself as she glanced at her armor, almost damning in its appearance. 'I should have returned to normal when I got knocked out, but why is my armor over there?' She felt a twinge of worry that started to grow larger. 'And what about my Soul Gem?'

She might have somehow recovered, but just resting wouldn't cleanse her Gem. For all she knew, it could be pretty close to dark again already, considering the level of magic, both healing and offensive, she had been throwing around recently. And after the last time that had happened, she wasn't eager to repeat it.

She shook her head and shut her eyes. 'Calm down, Sayaka,' she told herself. 'First things first, just find the darn thing.'

Concentrating, she reached outward mentally, attempting to catch a glimpse of that familiar glow and warmth that represented her very life. Her calmness turned to confusion after the first few seconds.

At the fifteen second mark, annoyance.

Anger at twenty-five seconds.

Slowly mounting apprehension at 35. She attempted to expand her search beyond the hut.

Icy fear at the 50 second mark. She had covered half the village by this point. Anymore than that and her Soul Gem would be so far that she should be a lifeless corpse (and yes, she spoke from personal experience).

By the minute mark, her eyes snapped open to barely contained panic. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She couldn't feel it anywhere.

She glanced down at herself and, in a moment of impulse, tried to will herself back to normal forcefully. What would normally be accomplished with but a thought was now being attempted with all of her mental energy.

Two seconds...five...nothing. Her armor was still lying on the table like nothing had happened, her skull-mask almost leering at her in the shadows.

'What...what...' she thought to herself in increasing panic, her breath getting shallower and shallower. 'What the hell's going on?!'

Suddenly, as if a light switch had gone off in the darkest recesses of her mind, a whole lot of things made more sense. The fact she could feel pain much easier. Why she had recovered from her magical exhaustion so fast. The proof she hadn't turn back to normal yet. The presence of her fish tail. Why her body had seemed to heal slower than usual earlier. Somehow, it all connected with her Soul Gem being gone.

But why was she still alive?

The question persisted, taunting with its simplicity along with several others. What had happened to her Soul Gem? Who was that Witch from her dreams? And where did that urge of power from earlier come from? Was it all connected, or was it just coincidence?

Above all, one question stood out to her.

"What happened to me?" she whispered softly as she glanced at one of her hands, the one upon which she wore her Soul Gem as a ring when not in use, her eyes on the finger it rested on, now eerily bare. "What am I now?"

When she had learned the truth about what Mahou Shoujo really were, she had been horrified, but on some level also resolute. She knew what she was, an undead lich with magic powers, and that was the truth of the matter. It was laid bare to her, and while it disgusted her on so many levels, it also let her know exactly what she was and what her goal could now be. She could still kill Witches even with that knowledge, and in a sense it was freeing to know she could fight with reckless abandon, knowing that as long as her Gem was safe she could keep coming back for more.

But now the rules had changed. She was no longer a Mahou Shoujo, at least not how she understood it. She was driving blind in an unknown world, and there was no Kyubey to provide tips (cryptic and assholish as they had been) for survival. She was playing a new game, and she had no manual for what to do.

So caught up in her inner conflict was she that she hadn't realize the door had opened up, nor was she aware of the pairs of eyes now on her. She wasn't even aware of the rush of wind that signalled one of them had rushed inside.

What she was aware of though was the feeling of something suddenly wrapping around her chest in a suffocating squeeze.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Slightly Earlier<strong>_

Ragna caught of a glimpse of what looked like blue and white hair before the doctor shut the door behind her, hiding his mysterious savior from his eyes. Turning his gaze to said doctor, he blinked in surprise.

"Hey, I know you," he said with confusion. "Aren't you the lady who wanted me to-"

She gave a nod. "I am," she replied with a polite voice. "And I do thank you for following through on that, Mr. Bloodedge."

He stiffened slightly at the use of his name. "How did you-"

"I told her," Tora said from right next to him. "She was reluctant to come down to the Village at such a late hour, but she was convinced when I told her who the clients would be."

"I had my suspicions from when we first met," the doctor added. "So please don't blame her."

Ragna gritted his teeth. His name wasn't really something you could throw around in casual conversation after all. Still, they seemed like decent enough people, so he let it slide. "Whatever," he grumbled. "How's the girl?"

The doctor adjusted her glasses. "Well, aside from exhaustion caused from overextending herself, nothing really. I could find no injuries that needed mended, and her body is already seeming to restore her lost energy. Honestly, it's amazing she's recovered this fast already. A good night's sleep and something decent to eat should see her as right as rain come morning."

"So can Tao finally see Fishy Lady?" Taokaka asked, not really paying attention to the conversation save the last part.

Litchi smiled. "I don't see why not, Tao," she replied, gesturing towards the door. "Just be careful. She's not fully recovered just yet-"

"Yay!" Tao shouted as she prepared to go inside. "Fishy Lady here I come meow!"

Tora held up one her hand. "Tao," she chuckled amused, "please be patient." Turning to Ragna, she tilted her head. "Would you please go inside with her and make sure she doesn't hurt the poor dear? I need to speak with Ms. Litchi for a moment."

Ragna sighed. Well, he had wanted to see his rescuer in person, and what better way to open a conversation than with Tao being the catalyst? It was certainly one of the less awkward ways for him and maybe he'd get a laugh or two out of it.

"Alright," he relented, then looked at the doctor. "Do I have a clean bill of health, doc?"

She gave him a polite smile. "I think you two can afford to be in the same room...unless you're one of those grown men who's still afraid of cooties?" she finished with a teasing tone.

He snorted. "Fat chance of that."

With that, the doctor moved aside to join Torakaka, who took her to a few feet away to speak privately. Ragna spared them a suspicious glance for a moment, then placed his hand on the door. Suddenly, he thought of something he hadn't realized 'til now about the doctor.

'Wait a minute...was she always that pale?'

He shook his head, dismissing it. Turning to the still-eager Tao, he gave her a small grin.

"So Tao, ready to see your new friend?"

"Yeah, Good Guy!" she answered him. "I think you and her will get along just fine meow!"

'Well, guess we'll find out.'

With that thought, Ragna opened the door to meet his savior.

* * *

><p>"Are you alright?"<p>

Litchi looked over at Torakaka with a guilty look, only relaxing slightly at the genuine concern on her face. "Y-Yes," she breathed slowly, placing a hand to her head as a wave of nausea overtook her for a moment. It had taken all of her willpower to maintain that facade of calmness around Sayaka when she had woken up, and she had almost hit her breaking point when salvation came in the form of the group's interruption. "It...It'll pass..."

"What happened?" Tora asked. "You didn't look like this earlier."

Litchi took a deep breath. "I-I don't know," she admitted. "I was perfectly fine until that girl Sayaka woke up. All of a sudden I felt...strange. Almost like..."

"The lure of the Azure?" Tora asked her quietly, confusion being replaced with concern and genuine befuddlement. "How?"

"No..." Litchi corrected her. "Well...almost. It was similar to when I touched Ragna the Bloodedge's Grimoire but...it seemed...purer, stronger. Just being in her awakened presence was enough to cause me to feel ill...I don't want to know what might happen if I actually touch her."

"Will you be alright?" Tora asked her, pushing her own questions aside out of concern for the doctor's well-being. "Do you need to lie down?"

Litchi shook her head, feeling her strength return with every moment. "No, I'll be fine. The two of them should be well-enough without my care now. Just make sure they get some rest."

Tora nodded. "Thank you, Litchi," she said warmly, but then cautioned. "And beware the lure of the Grimoire. You're treading dangerous territory even now."

Litchi nodded. "You're welcome, Torakaka. I will. Will you be escorting me back?"

Tora bowed her head. "It would be rude of a host not to ensure her guests are well-taken care of."

* * *

><p>Ragna the Bloodedge wasn't one to be easily surprised. He was the Grim Reaper who had single-handedly waged a one-man-war against the world's most powerful organization and earned the greatest bounty in all of history. He had fought some of the strongest beings in this world and come out alive. His teacher was a sword-swinging cat who had helped to kill one of the greatest threats to the world over a century ago for god's sake!<p>

Learning that the person who had managed to not only save his life and heal a stab wound through the stomach with _magic _was a girl probably just truly coming into her teens, but could also apparently make swords out of thin air and shoot giant blasts of energy out of said sword? He had to admit, that was definitely one of weirder things he had ever seen.

Still, couldn't quite compare to the scene of the girl trying to force the very happy Tao off of her chest, her bed all messed up and tail flopping about as they tussled. Considering all the shit that had gone down recently, it was enough to get Ragna to chuckle a little bit.

"Fishy Lady, you're really awake!" Tao yelled happily. "I was worried you were gonna die when you collapsed! But Boobie Lady made you all better, didn't she? Now you, me and Good Guy can all eat together!"

"T-Tao, g-get *haha* off! I'm alright!" the girl yelled in turn, a little angrily but also with some laughter, mostly because Tao was busy tickling her while also giving her a bear hug. "I-I'm *haha!* happy to s-see you too *heehee!*! Just st-stop it for a second!"

She managed to turn her head towards Ragna, tears of mirth streaming down her face. "H-Hey!" she shouted with some desperation. "A- *haha!* A little help here?!"

Ragna sighed to himself. "All right, all right," he muttered, then started walking forward. "Settle down, Tao," he told the catgirl. "I think she needs to breathe. Don't you remember what Torakaka said?"

Tao blinked for a moment, then quickly let the bedridden girl go, her face twisted into worry. "Oh no! I forgot Fishy Lady's still resting!" She gave the girl a sad look. "I'm sorry, Fishy Lady..."

The blue-and-white-haired girl took a moment to feel her ribs as her giggles quieted. Finally, she looked over at Tao with a (slightly forced in Ragna's opinion) smile. "It's alright Tao..." she told the catgirl comfortingly. "Just...just don't do that again unless I ask for it, all right?"

Tao nodded solemnly, and for a moment Ragna thought they would have a moment of peace.

It was quickly shattered when Tao suddenly seemed to perk up. "Oh! I know what'll cheer you up! Tao'll be right back meow!"

With that, the blond catgirl quickly raced outside, leaving the door open. The two stared outside for a moment before the girl cleared her throat.

"So...you're Ragna the Bloodedge, huh?" she tried to ask in a casual way. "...You look better," she finished lamely.

He coughed into his hand. "Uh, yeah. Thanks..."

He blinked when he realized he never bothered to ask anyone beforehand what her name was. The only one he had to go on was 'Fishy Lady', and he doubted she'd appreciate anyone who didn't have Tao's mentality using it.

Luckily, she noticed his hesitation and correctly interpreted it. "Sayaka," she said simply. "Sayaka Miki."

He nodded. "Yeah, Sayaka. Uh huh." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. It had been a long time since he had dealt with a conversation like this, mostly because he was usually telling the other person to get lost when it got like this. He obviously couldn't do that now though.

"Look, thanks for saving my ass out there," he finally said simply. "Probably wouldn't be here now if you hadn't."

"Don't mention it," she replied with a cheerful tone, but Ragna thought he detected an undercurrent of something else there. "After all, I couldn't just leave you there to bleed out at the mercy of that kid."

He sighed. "Yeah, that would have been embarrassing. The most wanted man on the planet getting his ass handed to him in the end by a kid. Not the way I want my story to end, personally."

Sayaka seemed to flinch at that, looking down at her feet. "Yeah...don't we all..." she muttered more to herself than to him.

Ragna noticed her mood shift and tried to find some way to change the conversation. His eyes lighted on the gear on the table.

"This yours?" he asked, gesturing to the pile as he gave it a scrutinizing eye. "Got to say, that's some rather fancy gear you've got."

Sayaka blinked and seemed to get out of her funk, nodding. "Yeah," she confirmed, giving it a once-over herself. "It's actually a little more...explicit than my usual wear, but I think it fits with my occupation pretty well."

Ragna raised an eyebrow. "Really...what are you exactly?" he asked her. "Some sort of vigilante like that kid? That stuff's not exactly something you find being worn by NOL soldiers after all."

She shook her head, but he noticed her hesitation at the words 'vigilante' and 'NOL', as if she didn't quite know what those words meant. "Nah, I'm actually..." she trailed off and rolled her eyes. "Well, you'd probably think it's stupid."

"Really? I'll bite."

Sayaka shifted for a moment, then finally sighed in defeat. "I'm a superhero who fights for justice and love and all those things you hear about in the storybooks," she deadpanned.

Ragna took a second to take that in. And then another. "...Seriously?" he finally asked, more out of surprise than ridicule.

"Laugh if you want," Sayaka replied defiantly, as if sensing a challenge in his words. "That's what I am...or at least was before I woke up in those ruins."

Ragna raised his hands in supplication. "Hey, I didn't say anything." He then blinked. "Wait, what do you mean 'woke up in those ruins'?"

Sayaka looked away. "You'd probably say I sound crazy."

"Hey, you can apparently use 'magic'," he replied. "I can think of maybe one other person who can do that, and she looks younger than you. Besides, I've seen some pretty strange shit in my life, so I think I can handle a little more crazy."

"Like what?"

"My teacher was a talking sword-swinging cat," he told her without a hint of sarcasm. "Beat that."

Sayaka just stared at him for the longest of moments, then sighed. "Alright then..."

She then went on how she had woken up in the middle of that ruined place without any memory of how she got there, along with the fact that she had no idea 'where' she was in the first place.

"I don't even remember getting that armor," she finished, gesturing to the gear. "I was just wearing it when I woke up."

He looked at it again. "Hmm...well, it certainly fits your role as a superhero," he admitted. He then gave her a sideways glance. "So...as a hero, having second thoughts about saving me?" he asked with a light tone. "Criminal right here in front of you, remember?"

She gave him a once-over, a smirk on her face. "Think I'll give you a pass this time, Bloodedge," she replied after some mock consideration. "You might be an evildoer worthy of redemption."

He chuckled just a little bit. "Well if you're still wondering where you are, you're in the Kaka Village now," Ragna replied. "Right underneath the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi."

He watched as Sayaka's face scrunched up in confusion. "...Don't know where that is."

Ragna blinked. "Well, where are you from then?"

"Mitakihara," she replied. "Mitakihara Town."

Ragna blinked again. "Uh...girl..."

"What?"

"I've never heard of a place like that."

Sayaka just looked at him like he had grown a second head. "What?"

"There's no Hierarchical City by that name anywhere in the world," Ragna told her truthfully, "and trust me, I've done my research. I've never met anyone who was from a place like that, and I've never heard of any news about a place like that either."

* * *

><p>Sayaka blinked at Ragna's words and shook her head. "That...that's crazy!" she replied with some heat. "Mitakihara exists! I was born and raised there! My best friend lives there! It can't just be not real!"<p>

"Hey, I'm just saying what I know, okay?" he replied, a slight bit of annoyance entering his voice no doubt at the implication of being accused of lying. "Don't get all snappy with me."

"Well...what about Tokyo?" she asked. "You got to know where that is at least, right?"

He gave her a look. "Yeah, I do...its ruins at least."

Sayaka could almost feel her mind go blank. "Wha?"

"Tokyo's been in ruins for the past 100 years," he replied like it was common knowledge. "It was one of the first places the Black Beast attacked in full force. Assuming you can take the seithr, you can still see the ruins to this day."

'100 years...' Sayaka repeated to herself mentally. A crazy thought followed it, but she instantly tried to quash it. 'No! Don't think about it, that can't be an option!'

But like a painful itch it kept scratching away, refusing to leave. Finally, she gave in. "Ragna..." she started slowly.

"Yeah?"

"What year is this?" Noticing his 'are-you-serious' look, she sighed. "Humor me for a second, okay?"

Ragna rolled his eyes. "Fine. The year's 2200. New Year's Eve was just a few days ago, actually."

It was just one little date. But for Sayaka, it was enough to make her feel as if her entire world had been thrust out from under her all over again. She looked down at herself, as if trying to see if her body had suddenly aged over a century last she checked.

"Twenty-two...2200?" she repeated softly without looking, hoping against hope she had misheard.

Ragna shifted uncomfortably, evidently picking up that his words had affected her deeply. "Yeah..." he replied, then looked at her. "Must have been one hell of a nap from the sound of things. What was the date before you blacked out?"

Sayaka looked up at him. "It was...it was April."

Ragna blinked at her words. "Wait, you mean you've been out for almost nine months?"

She shook her head. "No...I mean the April of-" she stopped, unwilling to say the date. To say it would bring it the full ramifications of her position down on her, and she had no idea if she could accept it. Yet she also knew that she had to say it, if only to bring this madness to full circle before it utterly consumed her with doubt.

'Say it,' she told herself, but the words laid stuck in her throat. 'Damn it girl, say it!'

"Of what year?" Ragna asked her. "You're not making any sense."

She gulped and took a breath. "...of 2011," she finally managed to say.

Ragna just stared at her for the longest of moments. "What?" he finally asked her.

"2011," she repeated slowly. "That was the year when I went to sleep. I'm over a century and a half now by that logic."

'And that means everyone I care for...' she thought as her memory brought up images of her parents, Madoka, Kyoko, Hitomi, Kyousuke and even of Homura and Mitakihara itself, only to watch them all vanish to be replaced with destroyed ruins and worn gravestones. 'Am I the only one left?'

"But that's impossible!" Ragna shouted, bringing her back to reality. "How can you be that old? What's more, how could you be asleep for that long and not wake up? That doesn't make any sense! Unless you somehow managed to time-travel-"

"Not impossible."

Both of them suddenly snapped their attention towards the corner of the hut, just in time to watch a young girl walk through some sort of portal with rose petals trailing around her. She was maybe about that boy Carl's age, with pale skin, long blonde hair tied into two pigtails with black ribbons, red eyes and a face set in a seemingly bored expression. Her clothing looked distinctly like Gothic Lolita fashion, with a frilly black gown and jacket, red ribbon bow tie, a red bat symbol design cross from the front to the back on her dress, another red cross on her shawl and bottom half, high heeled black boots with a red cross, and a red ribbon on her right ankle to complete the picture. By her side was a large black cat and a red bat-like creature floated near her head. All in all, it was like looking at some sort of loli vampire.

However, none of those things caught Sayaka's attention more than the air she gave off as she walked inside. It seemed to almost scream of nobility, dignity and grace...along with the hint of arrogance expected one such person. More than all of that though, it was distinct air of age, as if this girl had seen more things in her life than those who appeared twenty times her age.

Of course, none of that prevented Sayaka from summoning a sword on instinct and pointing it directly at the girl.

"Who are you?" she demanded immediately, not caring at all if it was a smart move. Having so many perspective-shattering revelations shown to her in quick order had left her a little uncaring of being 'smart' right now.

Ragna flinched back for a moment at the appearance of the blade, then gave it a once-over. "Huh, I guess your magic's good for something other than healing."

"Wah!" the red bat next to the girl's head yelped. "She-She just summoned a sword out of nowhere!"

"We can see that Gii," the cat replied, shifting to more of a guarded stance. "Please stop stating the obvious!"

"Both of you, stop it," the girl, no doubt their master, ordered them, causing them both to grow silent. She then looked over at Ragna. "Hello Ragna," she said. "You're looking rather well tonight."

"What the hell are you doing here, Rabbit?" Ragna growled back, obviously not amused by the girl's attempt to make small talk. "I don't remember wanting to see you for a while."

"Ragna," Sayaka asked guardedly, "Who's this?"

"_I _am Rachel Alucard," the girl answered before Ragna could. "You would do well to ask questions like that to the person they concern."

"Bitch," Ragna muttered under his breath, reminding the Mahou Shoujo so much of Kyoko. It was quite obvious he didn't seem to like this person too much. Not that Sayaka could blame him though. There was something about the girl that rubbed Sayaka the wrong way, but she didn't know what.

"As for why I'm here," Rachel continued, ignoring Ragna, "I was simply about to offer a potential answer to the young lady about the discrepancies in time frame." Her eyes seemed to flicker over Sayaka's armor on the table. "And I feel that what I have to say is of the utmost importance if she intends to survive in this world."

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter done! At last, Rachel decides to discuss with Sayaka! How exactly will it go down? Tao's still being Tao, and Litchi's noticed the strange thing about our resident Mahou Shoujo. What will happen next? Tune in next time to find out!<strong>

**(Also, I think some people can guess who that 'Witch' really was. Don't worry, we haven't seen the last of her by a long shot.)**

**Fav, follow and review, people! Seriously, just a few minutes to write something about the chapter would be appreciated!**


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